Transit of goods through Kazakhstan grew 23 percent in 2019

NUR-SULTAN – The transit of goods through Kazakhstan grew 23 percent to 664,000 containers and total transit revenues for Kazakhstan reached more than 450 billion tenge (US$1.2 billion) in 2019, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Industrial Development reported Jan. 20.

Photo credit: miid.gov.kz.

Among this cargo, the number of containers in the direction of China – Europe – China increased 11 percent to 347,000 TEU containers.

Approximately 17.5 million tonnes of goods transited through Kazakhstan in 2019. Of that, 75.6 percent or 11.5 million tonnes were in route to Central Asian countries.  In particular, cargo to Uzbekistan totalled 7.1 million tonnes, to Kyrgyzstan  2.26 million tonnes, to Tajikistan 1.2 million tonnes and to Afghanistan 0.26 million tonnes. Outside of Central Asia, cargo to Russia accounted for 2.8 percent, China 13.8 percent and European Union countries 7.1 percent.

Specific types of cargo transported through Kazakhstan via railway include oil at 18.5 percent, ferrous metals at 10.7 percent, chemicals and soda at 6.8 percent, chemical and mineral fertilisers 2.2 percent, grain at 1.7 percent and other types of cargo totalling 55.6 percent.

The volume of transit goods transported via roads amounted to 1.93 million tonnes. The main directions of the road transit were as follows: from China to the countries of the European Union at 14,000 tonnes, to Central Asian countries 779,000 tonnes and to Russia 61,700 tonnes of cargo.

Cargo originating in Central Asian nations included 106,500 tonnes to the European Union, 396,000 tonnes to Russia and 5,400 tonnes to China. Approximately 9,700 tonnes of cargo were delivered from Russia to the countries of Central Asia, 567,000 tonnes from the countries of the European Union to Central Asia and 2,700 tonnes of cargo to China.

Goods transported via road consisted primarily of automobiles and equipment. Of that, electronic equipment accounted for 20.1 percent of transit, plant products 17.3 percent, consumer goods 15 percent, raw materials, fabrics and textile materials 11.5 percent and other goods 8.6 percent.


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