Sea

In the first five months of 2025, 455.9 million tons of cargo were transported in Kazakhstan by all modes of transport, which is 11.9% more than in the same period last year. Rail transport accounted for the largest share – 185.5 million tons (+14.1%), freight turnover amounted to 138.8 billion ton-kilometers (+9.3%). The growth is especially noticeable in the maritime industry: the volume of transportation increased by 43.9%, reaching 1.6 million tons, and freight turnover increased to 747.9 million ton-kilometers (+14.7%).

In the first five months of 2025, 78 thousand TEU containers were handled in the seaports of Ukraine, almost twice as much as in the same period of 2024. This was reported by Deputy Minister of Communities and Territories Development Andriy Kashuba, emphasizing the gradual restoration of the container direction.

A.P. Moller – Maersk has unveiled the first vessel of the new Berlin Mærsk class of container ships, equipped with a dual-fuel methanol plant. The ceremony took place on June 18 at the Hyundai Heavy Industries shipyard in Ulsan, South Korea. This is the 14th vessel with an environmentally friendly drive type in the Maersk fleet, and five more similar ones will join it in the near future.

Four key Polish seaports – Gdansk, Gdynia, Szczecin and Świnoujście – signed a Partnership Agreement on 24 June 2025, aimed at strengthening their positions in European and global logistics. The document provides for the coordination of efforts in the areas of sustainable development, digitalisation, infrastructure modernisation and energy transition, as well as joint representation of interests in national and international institutions.

From September 2025, the Kazakh company MCM (Middle Corridor Maritime) will begin operating regular ferry services on the route Kuryk (Kazakhstan) – Alyat (Azerbaijan) – Kuryk. The new vessels will be managed by the company and will sail under the flag of Kazakhstan for the first time, providing 8-9 services per month. One ferry will be able to transport up to 54 trucks, which will significantly increase cargo flow across the Caspian Sea and create a sustainable logistics channel between the two countries.

Yukito Higakki, president of Japan’s largest shipbuilder Imabari Shipbuilding and recently appointed head of the Japan Shipbuilding Industry Association (JSIA), has announced the goal of returning the country to at least 20% of the global shipbuilding market by 2030 — double the current level. This is a step toward restoring the position that Japan occupied in the 1990s, when it controlled almost half of the world’s orders.

Ocean Network Express (ONE) has announced the delivery of ONE Singapore, the sixth in a series of 20 container ships equipped to run on methanol and ammonia. The ceremony at the Imabari Shipbuilding shipyard in Hiroshima marked another milestone in the company’s extensive fleet renewal program.

According to the results of January–May 2025, the cargo turnover of the Freeport of Riga decreased by 7.2% compared to the same period last year and amounted to more than 6.9 million tons. The main decline was shown by bulk cargo, the volume of which decreased by 16.6%, to 3.1 million tons, including over 1 million tons of agricultural products – 20.4% less than a year earlier.

The agreement between the MSC consortium and BlackRock to buy 80% of the assets of terminal operator Hutchison Ports, announced in March, may be subject to changes. According to Bloomberg, the Chinese state-owned company COSCO is believed to be joining the talks. Sources suggest that this is a compromise between the US and China, reached during May consultations in Switzerland.

At the Transucrein port terminal in Izmail, Solagro has implemented a fully automated process for receiving agricultural products for the first time with the participation of just one operator. Six vehicles were received in an hour and a half, which is 150 tons of grain. All stages, from queue management and receiving consignment notes via a chat bot to weighing, sampling and line control, were carried out remotely.