Members of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route Association (TITR), which aims to develop the Middle Corridor, came together for a meeting in Baku on 4 March. On the agenda were a review of the progress made in 2024 and a look ahead into 2025. The conclusion: the Middle Corridor is growing, with the highlight of the show being container (block) trains from China.
TITR members pointed out a number of positive developments that took place in 2024. For instance, the exchange of freight between Kazakh and Azerbaijani ports on the Caspian Sea grew substantially. A total of 3,3 million tonnes of freight made its way across the Caspian, a 20 per cent increase compared to 2023. Moreover, container transportation volume nearly tripled, growing by 176 per cent to 56,500 TEU.
Most notably, 2024 brought spectacular growth in the number of container (block) trains dispatched from China. It increased by a factor of 33, or nearly 3200 per cent. Whereas in 2023 a mere 11 container trains left China on the Middle Corridor, in 2024 that had grown to 358.
What explains such growth?
The TITR association says that that development is attributable to a number of factors. First, the active cooperation with China is bearing fruit. Second, growing sea shipping rates contributed to the attractiveness of the Middle Corridor. And lastly, the opening of the joint Kazakh – Chinese terminal in the Xi’an dry port helped to boost the volume of freight immensely. It consolidates 40 per cent of all container trains in the direction of Kazakhstan.
It then comes as no surprise that the association is making an effort to deepen that cooperation. At the meeting on 4 March, it announced that it would establish a representative office in Xi’an.
“This initiative is aimed at strengthening collaboration with Chinese partners and enhancing transport connectivity”, the organisation explains. “The establishment of the Xi’an office is expected to facilitate new opportunities for freight transportation along the TITR route and improve cooperation with Chinese enterprises.”