Service across three countries

At the end of January, the first container train with Chinese cargoes left Mys Churkin Station (Far Eastern Railway, a branch of Russian Railways) for Uzbekistan. The service was organized by JSC RZD Business Active (RZDBA) jointly with the Uzbek company O'ztemiryo'lkonteyner.

The train consisted of seventy 40-foot containers carrying consumer goods, equipment, and tires from China. The cargos were shipped from the producing country by sea. 

Oybek Zhabarov, Head of the Marketing and Logistics Department of O'ztemiryo'lkonteyner, notes that the containers arrived from the Chinese port of Qingdao in Vladivostok commercial sea port after a 5 day journey by sea. After completion of document processing and loading operations at the Russian railway station, the train left for Uzbekistan on January 31. The transit time en route was 12 days.

"The cost of delivering one forty-foot container, including the provision of rolling stock, is $14,000," adds Oybek Zhabarov.

As Gudok was told by Rasim Nigmatdinov, Head of Business Development in Asia-Pacific and Southeast Asia at RZDBA, the train's route passes through three countries - Russia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. To make more efficient use of the transport infrastructure, platforms, and container equipment, it is planned to load back the train immediately after it arrives in Tashkent (Chukursay station).

According to Rasim Nigmatdinov, this is the first experience of cooperation between RZDBA and O'ztemiryo'lkonteyner. "The service will be in demand against the backdrop of trade recovery and increased demand for container transportation. The main advantage of the new route is expanding opportunities for shippers, and creating new stable services organized within the China-Russia-Central Asia corridor," he adds.

Arina Belan