(Yicai) Oct. 20 -- Cargo moved through the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route surpassed 1.32 million tons in the first half, up 77 percent from a year earlier, according to Kazakhstan’s official data, amid growing interest from Chinese companies.

Chinese firms started using the route in 2017 and began to increase their use of the corridor last year, Yang Jie, general manager of a China-Europe railroad freight forwarder in Shanghai, told Yicai.

The goods are sent by rail from China to Kazakhstan’s Port of Aktau. They then cross the Caspian Sea by ferry to Azerbaijan’s Port of Baku, continue to Georgia’s Poti Sea Port by rail and cross the Black Sea to Romania’s Port of Constantza, Yang explained, before they head out to different parts of Europe by local rail links.

If all goes smoothly, it takes as little as 12 days to travel the 7,000 kilometers from China to Europe, according to Kazakhstan’s data. The China-Europe northern trade corridor that goes through Russia is 10,000 kilometers and takes at least 15 days. And on the southern corridor through Iran, the distance is 20,000 kilometers and it takes 45 to 60 days to reach Europe.

As of the end of last month, the China-Europe Railway Express had reached 217 cities in 25 countries in Europe, with over 78,000 trains delivering more than 7.4 million twenty-foot equivalent units of cargo, according to data from China’s National Railway Administration. The goods accounted for 8 percent of the total in China-Europe trade last year, up from 1.5 percent in 2016.

The China-Europe Railway Express is expanding its network, with Central Asia, China-Vietnam, and China-Lao cargo services set to be included in the next three to five years, Yang noted, and use of the Trans-Caspian route can improve efficiency for the central and south corridors. 

Transport capacity on the Trans-Caspian leg is still limited, as the infrastructure along it is imperfect, Yang said, but Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkey, and some companies in Denmark and Germany have started planning to increase investment in the route.

Editors: Shi Yi, Tom Litting