ALMATY/BISHKEK/OCT. 27 2021 (The Bulletin) — China has stopped processing rail cargo to and from Central Asia at its Khorgos terminal on the Kazakhstan-China border because it is prioristing a backlog of wagons heading to Europe.

A Beijing-based official from Kazakhstan’s national railway company Temir Zholy told media that there were 3,000 railway wagons stuck at the border trying to get into Kazakhstan and 7,000 trying to get into China.

 “The main demand from the Chinese side is for container trains to the EU,” the official was quoted as saying. “They account for 90% of all traffic, while in the direction of Central Asia only 10%.”

Freight networks in Central Asia are under increasing pressure. Kyrgyz officials have also said that their usual border crossings directly into China at the Torugart and Irkeshtam passes are either closed or reduced to a fraction of their pre-coronavirus traffic, forcing most truck drivers to cross into Kazakhstan and head for Khorgos.

Not only is this a major detour but Kyrgyz truck drivers have said that Kazakh officials harass them. The head of the Kyrgyz Freight Carriers Association Temirbek Shabdanaliev said that he thought that Kazakh customs officials had been told to harass Kyrgyz drivers to put Chinese companies off using the Kyrgyzstan route into Central Asia.

“Our drivers have to unload and load several times, often in bad weather. This takes five or six days,” he said.

Kazakh officials have said they are trying to clamp down on smuggling.

–ENDS–

— This story was published in issue 505 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on Oct. 28 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021