Ukraine in March starts shipping to eastern countries bypassing Russia

Ukraine plans to start full-fledged commercial operation of the Trans-Caspian international transport corridor from Europe through Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan to China in March 2016. The test train has already arrived in China on January 31, and will return to Ukraine by the end of February this year.

In the future, it will be necessary to analyze all the weaknesses identified during the test trip in order to sign an appropriate regulatory document that will ensure Ukraine's commercial operation of the transport corridor on a regular basis. In the 20th of February 2016, it is planned to sign the final protocol in Baku, regulating technical issues and other aspects.

The main operator of this route will be the Liski Transport Service Center, which is part of the Ukrainian Railways. It is assumed that it is possible to reduce the duration of the trip along the route to 10 days, which is quite close in time, in cases of travel through the territory of Russia.

A test container train departed on January 15 from Ilyichevsk on the Ukraine-Georgia-Azerbaijan-Kazakhstan-China route (via the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea) and arrived in China on January 31.

Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Ukraine in January this year signed a protocol defining competitive preferential tariffs for cargo transportation along the Trans-Caspian route.