Tag Archives: logistics

Turkey lifts ban on sending cargo flights to Armenia

JAN. 6 2023 (The Bulletin) — Turkey lifted a ban on cargo flights to Armenia, part of its package to “normalise” relations. The move was agreed in July 2022 and is designed to lay the foundations for the slow opening of the Armenia-Turkey border. There have been no diplomatic or trade relations between Turkey and Armenia since 1993 when the border was closed. Armenia and Turkey have agreed to open the border to citizens of third countries although they have not put a timeline on this.

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— This story was published in issue 532 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on Jan. 16 2023

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2023

Uzbek airports cut landing rates for foreign airlines

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OCT. 21 2021 (The Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s airports cut their landing rates for foreign airlines by around 15% and divided service options into ‘pick-and-mix’ packages (Oct. 21). Central Asia’s airports and airlines are competing for the lucrative Asia-Europe passenger and freight trade. Rano Juraeva, chairman of Uzbekistan Airports, said in a statement that the rate cut was designed to “attract foreign airlines”. As well as investing in airports and logistics hubs, governments in Central Asia have been investing in upgrades to their state-run national airlines.

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— 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

China stops processing cargo from Central Asia

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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.

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— 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

CEVA Logistics sets up office in Tashkent

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OCT. 21 2021 (The Bulletin) — Highlighting Uzbekistan’s growing attraction as a place for Western logistics companies to base themselves in the Central Asia region, CEVA Logistics said that it would set up an office in Tashkent. CEVA Logistics is owned by France’s CMA CGM, one of the world’s largest container shipping companies.

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— 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

Port of Baku to build fertiliser terminal

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JUNE 9 2021 (The Bulletin) — Baku Port said that it had started construction work on a fertiliser terminal. The plan is to have the terminal up and running by the end of 2022 to ship fertilisers from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan across the Caspian Sea, the South Caucasus and the Black Sea to Europe.

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— This story was published in issue 48 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on June 16 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

China to build Belt and Road terminal in Kyrgyzstan

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BISHKEK/JUNE 7 2021 (The Bulletin) — China signed a deal to finance the development of a $100m industrial sector in Kyrgyzstan a few days after Pres. Xi Jinping telephoned Kazakh Pres. Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to talk up the prospect of deeper relations.

The industrial sector deal highlights China’s status as Kyrgyzstan’s biggest financial backer and cements the importance of its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) for Central Asia.

According to press reports, “investors” from China will pay $20m initially to develop the Silk Way Industrial Park with subsequent payments pushing up total investment to $100m.

The 70 hectare site on the border with Kazakhstan, 30km from Manas International Airport, is considered by China to be a key part of its BRI project to boost East-West trade. The BRI hinges on building infrastructure across the region which has allowed China to increase its influence. In May, China said that it would boost aid to Kyrgyzstan and this week media reported that, in a phone call, Chinese Pres. Xi told Kazakh Pres. Tokayev that relations needed to “advance in the right direction”.

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— This story was published in issue 487 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on June 9 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Pakistan offers Uzbekistan access to its ports

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MARCH 11 (The Bulletin) — On a two day visit to Pakistan, Uzbek foreign minister Abdulaziz Kamilov talked up the potential of Pakistan’s ports at Karachi and Gwadar as “gateways to Central Asia”. The landlocked Central Asian republics are continually looking for ways to get access to the sea. The ports at Karachi and Gwadar are being upgraded by China as part of its Belt and Road Initiative. Sending goods through them would give Central Asian manufacturers direct access to the Indian Ocean.

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— This story was published in issue 475 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on March 15 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Thousands of railway wagons stuck on Kazakhstan-China border

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JAN. 6 2021 (The Bulletin) — China has tightened import criteria for goods entering from Central Asia, a move linked to the coronavirus pandemic, causing queues miles long at its border with Kazakhstan. Media reported that there are 8,400 railway wagons queuing on the border with China. Kazakhstan’s minister of trade, Bakhyt Sultanov, said that China was allowing through only a tenth of the traffic it allowed before the pandemic.

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— This story was first published in issue 467 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

The Caspian Sea is shrinking, warn scientists

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ALMATY/DEC. 23 2020 (The Bulletin) — The Caspian Sea, which provides a livelihood for thousands of people and acts as a fulcrum for international transit routes through the Central Asia and South Caucasus region, is shrinking, new scientific research showed (Dec. 23).

The report produced by universities in Germany and the Netherlands said that the Caspian Sea could lose up to a third of its water by 2100, with water level dropping by 18m, marooning previously important ports hundreds of kilometres inland.

The report’s authors said they wanted to use the threat to the Caspian Sea to highlight the dangers of global warming to inland seas and lakes.

“A massive warning signal is the projected catastrophic drop in water levels for the Caspian Sea, the largest lake in the world, which could hit stakeholders unprepared,” the report said.

Previous studies have warned that the Caspian Sea has been shrinking since the 1990s but not this quickly.

Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Azerbaijan border the Caspian Sea, which lies at the centre of a series of transport corridors that ultimately connect East Asia with Europe.

The Caspian Sea also hosts the region’s oil and gas industry and is a wildlife reserve, supporting seals, and migratory birds. The report showed how vast areas of the northern section of the Caspian Sea could dry up, with Atyrau in Kazakhstan effectively being stranded hundreds of kilometres from the shore.

Central Asia’s reputation for ecological disasters is already secure with the shrinking of the Aral Sea, which is shared by Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. It shrank in the 1960s and 1970s to half its original size because of Soviet schemes to siphon off its tributaries to irrigate cotton fields.

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— This story was first published in issue 467 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Anaklia partners sue Georgian government

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TBILISI/JULY 29 (The Bulletin) — The Anaklia Development Consortium (ADC) and one of its key investors filed separate arbitration claims against the Georgia government for cancelling its deal to build the new Black Sea port.

ADC and Bob Meijer, the investor, said that they are claiming a combined $1b for lost earnings linked to the project.

The Georgian government tore up the contract with the ADC in January because it said that ADC had failed to secure sufficient financial backing to build the new port, supposed to become Georgia’s principal entry and exit for goods being transported to and from China and Europe.

ADC, though, said that the contract was ripped up for political reasons. One of the main backers of the ADC project was, Mamuka Khazaradze, the founder of TBC Bank. TBC Bank is one of Georgia’s biggest high street banks and is listed on the London Stock Exchange but last year Mr Khazaradze was arrested for corruption, allegations he has said are politically motivated.

ADC said that this row between Mr Khazaradze and the Georgian government tarnished the project.

“The Government deliberately acted to ensure that ADC could not succeed with project development. In this instance the Government abused its power because the ruling party and its leader decided the project’s success was contrary to their own political and economic interests,” ADC said in a statement.

The statement also said that the ADC was bringing its action through the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Paris and that Mr Meijer was pursuing his claim through the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in Washington.

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— This story was published in issue 455 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on July 31 2020.