BTK boosts container freight transportation in 1H2021

By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

Some 11,084 TEU containers have been transported by the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway route in January-June this year, ADY Container LLC has reported.

It should be noted that this figure is close to the total number of containers, which is 11,748 TEU,  transported through this route in 2020.

During the first six months of the year, the BTK railway has handled 369 TEUs of imports, 397 TEUs of exports and 10,318 TEUs of transit freight.

The containerized goods mainly consisted of non-ferrous metallurgy and chemical products, equipment, grain and grain products, textiles, animal feed and construction materials.

Moreover, the largest amount of containers on this line, which is 3,206 TEU, was transported in the Kazakhstan-Turkey direction, while 552 TEU was delivered in the opposite direction.

Likewise, some 2,915 TEUs from China, 912 TEUs from Turkmenistan and 747 TEUs from Uzbekistan were transported to Turkey via the BTK line.

Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad started operating in two-way mode recently. Initially, this transport corridor was used to transport goods from China to Europe. On December 4, 2020, the first freight train left Istanbul for China via the Kars-Tbilisi-Baku railroad.

Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is of exceptional importance for turning Azerbaijan into a regional transport corridor. The agreement on the construction of the railway, which was put into operation in 2017, was signed during the meeting in Tbilisi by the leaders of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey in 2007.

The 828- kilometer Baku Tbilisi Kars railway stretch from the Azeri coast of the Caspian Sea to the Georgian capital, and from there to Turkey, connecting the country’s extensive railway system and thus gaining access to European borders.

As of today, Baku-Tbilisi-Kars cargo turnover is 6 million tons, passenger turnover is 1 million people. In the future, it may be increased to 3 million passengers and 20 million tons of cargo.

It should be noted that the twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) is an inexact unit of cargo capacity, often used for container ships and container ports. It is based on the volume of a 20-foot long (6.1 m) intermodal container, a standard-sized metal box that can be easily transferred between different modes of transportation, such as ships, trains, and trucks.