A delegation of Azerbaijan Railways (ADY) headed by Chairman Rovshan Rustamov visited Iran to assess the state of the railway infrastructure in Julfa. One of the key issues was the construction of a railway bridge across the Araz River, which will connect Nakhchivan with the mainland of Azerbaijan via Iran. In addition, ADY representatives got acquainted with the work of the wheel pair replacement workshop in Julfa.
German company Elbe Flugzeugwerke (EFW), which specializes in the conversion of Airbus passenger aircraft into freighters, celebrated an important milestone: the completion of the 100th freighter conversion in its history. The jubilee aircraft, an Airbus A330P2F, was delivered to a customer in Asia, just like the first aircraft of this model in 2017. Over the seven years of work, the joint project of EFW, Airbus and ST Engineering has added 49 Airbus A330P2F, 47 A321P2F and 4 A320P2F to the global freighter fleet.
South Korea’s national carrier Korean Air has completed its acquisition of rival privately held Asiana Airlines, which will now be a subsidiary of Korean Air. The US$1.05 billion deal includes a 63.88% stake in Asiana. Full integration of the two companies, including the unification of their route networks and loyalty programs, will take about two years.
Container shipping major OOCL has announced the launch of its new China India Express 2 (CIX2) service, which will provide direct connections between ports in China and the Indian subcontinent. The new route is scheduled to start on December 23, 2024.
French shipping company CMA CGM will become the third carrier to serve Ukraine with its own tonnage. The new Odessa Express (ODX) service will connect the port of Odessa with key ports in Greece and Turkey. CMA CGM will deploy two vessels with a capacity of 1,100-1,500 TEU for the route.
As fossil fuel power generation in Europe declines and demand for sulphur in the chemical industry grows, Aglobis, a subsidiary of Mitsui & Co., Ltd., and logistics operator Rhenus are launching a major project to create an efficient supply chain. Sulphur production, previously a by-product of power plants, has become an import segment, with liquid sulphur playing a key role. To meet this demand, Aglobis plans to build a sulphur processing plant with a capacity of 400,000 tonnes per year, scheduled to start operation in 2027.
The Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR) continues to demonstrate impressive growth. Over the 11 months of 2024, cargo traffic increased by 63%, reaching 4.1 million tons, while container traffic increased 2.6 times to 50.5 thousand TEU. The total throughput capacity of the route is now 6 million tons per year, including 100 thousand TEU of containers.
Strengthening International Transport Corridors
On 10 December, an agreement was signed to establish a national cybersecurity platform for Dutch seaports, based on the Cyber Strategy for Dutch Seaports. FERM, previously active in the ports of Rotterdam and Moerdijk, will now become a national platform for all ports in the BOZ association (Groningen, North Sea, Rotterdam, Moerdijk and Amsterdam). The move was initiated by the Ministry of Infrastructure, BOZ and the National Coordinator for Counter-Terrorism and Security (NCTV).
From January to November 2024, Ukrzaliznytsia transported 160.9 million tons of cargo, which is 19.4% (or 26.2 million tons) more than in the same period of 2023. In export traffic, the volumes amounted to 77.46 million tons, showing an increase of 56.9% (+28.09 million tons). Among the key categories, grain cargo took the leading position: 36.66 million tons were transported over 11 months, of which 31.43 million tons were exported.
