The China–Kazakhstan border crossing at Khorgos is heavily congested across both rail and road transportation. It is vital for Middle Corridor traffic and trade exchanges between China and Central Asia. Kazakhstan has put the Belgian heavy lift company Sarens to work to improve infrastructure at the site, but rail gets secondary priority.
Sarens Project Manager Hannes Van Nedervelde explains that the company has long-term experience working in Kazakhstan. It was first involved at the Tengiz oil field in 2003 and has offered its services ever since.
The latest project is the Khorgos border crossing. Known on RailFreight.com primarily for its congestion challenges and delays, the facility is long overdue for an upgrade. That upgrade is now ongoing, with Sarens working hard to boost capacity for trucks, explains Van Nedervelde.
Despite the regular rail hiccups, road infrastructure has instead received priority. That in itself is not entirely surprising, since road congestion seems to be many times worse than on rail. The video below shows the situation with road congestion on the border crossing. A quick look at Google Maps’ satellite imagery shows that these jams can extend for many, many kilometres. Noteworthy detail: China only allows three daily crossings of oversized cargo, such as the wind turbine blade shown.
However, explains Van Nedervelde, there is more at play than just road congestion. “Kazakhstan sees both [rail and road] as equally important, rail is gigantic. But rail is very complex, so that will come later”, the Sarens Project Manager tells RailFreight.com. The key challenge here is figuring out how to connect Sarens’ new road logistics hub at Khorgos, which will add another border crossing and better facilities for staff, to the nearby rail terminal Altynkol.
Rail and road in one
This is supposed to be done within the next two to three years, says Van Nedervelde. Sarens would not be able to handle huge volumes of rail freight, but it can offer “the best of both worlds” by combining rail and road in a multimodal facility. That would be a significant improvement in capacity, provided that there are transshipment options, according to the Sarens project manager.
For Sarens, which specialises in project cargo operations, Khorgos remains a crucial transport node. This is all the more the case since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, when transportation across the Caspian became magnitudes more complicated. “The road and rail have become more important to Sarens”, the project manager elaborates.
That immediately translates into added weight for Khorgos. Interesting to note is that road transportation from China into Kazakhstan remains a more commercially attractive choice than moving freight via rail. This comes despite the many efforts to make the Middle Corridor a solid alternative for transport across and into Central Asia.