Polish refiner Orlen has signed a long-term agreement with Lithuania’s KN Energies, giving it exclusive access to the Klaipeda terminal for small-scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) transhipment. This will allow the company to increase gas supplies to north-eastern Poland and the Baltics. The new agreement will be valid until March 2030.
Ocean Network Express (ONE), a member of the Premier Alliance, has announced a new partnership with Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) to swap slots on the Asia-Europe trade. This agreement will cover nine routes, expanding direct port coverage and increasing sailing frequencies on the Asia-Northern Europe and Mediterranean routes.
The development of Kazakhstan’s ports on the Caspian Sea opens up significant prospects for the country. Lidiya Parkhomchik, a leading expert at the Institute of World Economy and Politics, emphasized that the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR) plays a special role in Kazakhstan’s transport strategy. The route connects the ports of Aktau and Kuryk with Baku, providing an important multimodal corridor for cargo transportation. It is expected that in 2024, the volume of transportation along the TITR will increase from 2.7 to 4.2 million tons.
The La Boella Intermodal Terminal in the Port of Tarragona has demonstrated its capacity to handle up to 50,000 TEU per year. This has become particularly relevant due to the temporary reorientation of cargo flows caused by the infrastructure upgrades at the Port of Barcelona, where the gauge change for the Mediterranean Corridor is ongoing and will last until mid-September.
HMM, Ocean Network Express (ONE) and Yang Ming Marine Transportation have announced the formation of a new alliance called Premier Alliance, which will commence in February 2025 for a period of five years.
In Kazakhstan, JSC NC Kazakhstan Temir Zholy is completing several major infrastructure projects, which will result in the construction of over a thousand kilometers of railway tracks. One of the key projects is the reconstruction of the Dostyk-Moiynty line, along which second tracks of more than 800 kilometers are being built. By the end of the year, train traffic will begin on the Dostyk-Aktogay and Moiynty-Balkhash sections.
The transport ministers of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have signed a joint document calling for maintaining and increasing European funding for strategic transport projects aimed at improving military mobility with Europe. The statement underlines the importance of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) in the next EU multiannual financial framework.
At the briefing, Salamat Abzhaliyev, Deputy Director General for Marketing and Planning at KTZ-Freight Transportation, noted that Kazakhstan continues to actively export grain and flour to China, Central Asian countries, Iran, Afghanistan and Turkey. Over the past three years, grain exports to China have increased 5.7 times, making it a key destination for Kazakhstani exports.
The new cruise ship Mein Schiff 7 of the German company TUI Cruises visited the port of Riga for the first time. Commissioned in June this year, the 316-meter-long and 35.8-meter-wide ship is one of the largest ships calling at the port this season. The liner can accommodate 2,896 passengers and 1,447 crew members. This is the first ship in the Mein Schiff fleet to run on methanol and the future “green” methanol, making it virtually carbon neutral.
MSC’s logistics subsidiary Medlog is acquiring Britain’s largest carrier Maritime Transport. The deal was announced by both companies, but details of the price remain confidential. Maritime Transport operates more than 30 rail routes and eight freight terminals across the UK, including Wakefield, Manchester, Tilbury and Birmingham. The company’s fleet includes more than 1,600 trucks.
