Gaidar Abdikerimov, Secretary General of the International TMTM Association, presented the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route association at the last Kazakhstan Transport and Logistics Forum. It started with the idea of creation back in 2013, and in 2017 it became an official legal entity with headquarters in the city of Astana, and since then significant changes have occurred. Having started with seven companies from three countries – Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Georgia; the association currently unites 11 countries and 25 companies operating in the transport, logistics, port and shipping sectors.
The association’s route extends through countries such as Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, and also includes China, Singapore, Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Ukraine and Lithuania. Spanning more than 11,000 kilometres, it provides a faster and more economical alternative to traditional routes across the Southern Ocean.
Since the beginning of its existence, the association has been actively developing container transportation along the route, establishing regular feeder services in the Caspian Sea. Thanks to this step, since the formation of the association, more than 8 million 700 thousand tons of cargo have been transported, mainly for export, including crude oil, petroleum products, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, as well as various minerals.
The current development of the association is aimed at constantly expanding the geography of the route and establishing partnerships with companies in Europe, Southeast Asia and other regions of the world. Today, shuttle trains operate between the Kazakh-Chinese border and the ports of Georgia, as well as the Turkish-Georgian border and the Turkish border with the European Union. These shuttle trains run on different routes with different frequencies. For example, trains from Altynkol station depart three times a week – every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7 am, regardless of the availability of cargo.
TMTM strives to provide customers with service according to the 5C principle:
- reasonable cost,
- fast speed,
- quality service,
- stability of services,
- safety of goods and the environment.
TMTM positions itself as a green corridor, thanks to the use of renewable energy sources and green port status in Kazakh and Azerbaijani ports. In addition, TMTM discovered an interesting trend: the faster the cargo moves, the less carbon dioxide emissions.
At our forum, Gaidar Abdikerimov shared unique information, talking about the container flow capacity on the Middle Corridor, which is an important indicator of their work. The corridor is capable of transporting up to 5.78 million tons of cargo and 80 thousand TEU containers annually. The current transportation capacity is approximately 40 thousand units per year. Although the association believes that it is at the initial stage of transportation, their goal is to increase this volume to 300 thousand containers.
The association recognizes that there have been problems in the past, including the 2022 collapse, when they were not prepared for the surge in traffic. However, the process of improving and expanding the work began in the fall of 2022, and has continued continuously since then with confidence in their ability to expand container throughput to 111 thousand with the right approach and planning. Additionally, free capacity on the corridor is 52% for railcar traffic and up to 74% for container traffic, which shows readiness for further capacity increases and successful development.