The volume of rail freight transport between Kazakhstan and China reached 35.6 million tonnes in 2025, an increase of 3.5 million tonnes (or 11%) compared to 2024. This was announced following a meeting between Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov and Premier of the State Council of the PRC Li Qiang. During the talks, the parties also noted growth in key indicators of bilateral cooperation: trade turnover exceeded $48 billion, trade in agro-industrial products reached $1.9 billion, and the volume of direct investment totaled $2.8 billion.
According to Bektenov, Kazakhstan has invested over $35 billion in transport and transit infrastructure development over the past seven years. Major projects include the construction of a container hub in Aktau with a capacity of up to 70,000 TEU per year, the launch of a Kazakhstani terminal at the Xi’an dry port, and the commissioning of a second track on the Dostyk–Moyynty section, which increased the line’s throughput capacity fivefold – from 12 to 60 pairs of trains per day.
Today, over 85% of overland freight traffic between China and Europe passes through Kazakhstan, and the volume of container shipments between the two countries has grown fivefold over the last decade, reaching 1.4 million TEU. Further momentum is evidenced by figures from the first quarter of 2026: freight volumes rose by 9.3% to 9.1 million tonnes, the number of container trains increased by 34.4%, and exports of Kazakhstani agricultural products to China generated $550 million – an 82.4% increase compared to the previous year.