What started as a regular service cooperation in late 2022 is now ready to upgrade into a full partnership aimed at rail investments. Nurminen Logistics and the Government of Kazakhstan, represented by Foreign Affairs Minister Murat Nurtleu, are discussing the possibilities of improving the Middle Corridor. Their negotiations entail the possibility of launching joint investment projects targeting Kazakh rail infrastructure.
In December 2022, Nurminen Logistics launched a regular shuttle service linking Finland and Kazakhstan through Hamburg. The service came after the first months of the war in Ukraine, which significantly disrupted Eurasian supply chains. In an attempt to avoid using Russian infrastructure, Nurminen launched this service to Kazakhstan, basically utilising the Middle Corridor.
A few months after launching the service, the president of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, stated in a meeting with Nurminen Logistics CEO Olli Pohjanvirta that Finland was considered a key European trade partner for Kazakhstan. Amidst rising tensions between the EU and Russia, Kazakhstan has been trying to juggle its options and remain as neutral as possible, at least when it comes to international cooperation and investments.
Tackling the main issue
In an exclusive interview a few months ago, Zeyba Agalarova, business development manager for Nurminen Logistics, shared with RailFreight.com that despite the Middle Corridor being a viable option for Europe-Asia traffic, some problems, mostly widely known, made this product a bit challenging.
Specifically, Agalarova stressed the importance of increasing port capacity and improving railway connections along the route while also taking digitalisation strides. She underlined: “The ports of Poti and Aktau are currently experiencing a lack-of-platform issue, which results in long waiting times for containers to be reloaded. The congestion could last for weeks.”
Moreover, she added that Kazakhstan’s railway infrastructure posed quite a few challenges and required substantial improvement that could be facilitated by digitalisation. A good starting [point, in her opinion, would be using a single electronic transit document used through all the MIddle Corridor states.
As cooperation between the two parties advances, it is likely that the discussed infrastructure investments will target digital solutions to make Middle Corridor transit as seamless as possible. The fact that a European company could spearhead such investments means a lot for the future of European and Central Asian trade and economic cooperation.
