A feeder ship waiting load cargo at BICT. ADY Container expects traffic via the Middle Corridor to increase, which would also require adding more vessels to service the route. Photo from ICTSI
- BICT will handle Asian cargo on the new multimodal service on the Georgian port of Batumi that will be shipped to Romania’s Constanta port for onward rail transport to European destinations
- ADY Container announced on June 21 the new rail-sea service via the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, or Middle Corridor, that carries mostly Chinese exports
- ADY Container said the new service caters to increased cargo traffic on the Middle Corridor transiting through Azerbaijan
- The Azerbaijani company is planning to add vessels on the new service to meet the growing demand
Batumi International Container Terminal (BICT), a business unit of International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) in Georgia, plays a key role in a new a multimodal feeder service linking Asia and Europe that ADY Container LLC launched recently.
ADY Container announced on June 21 the new rail-sea service via the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, also known as the Middle Corridor.
Baku, Azerbaijan-based ADY Container said the new service is designed to cater to the capacity requirements of the Middle Corridor, where cargo traffic has increased due to the growing volume transitingthroughAzerbaijan.
BICT, a wholly-owned ICTSI Group company in Batumi, Georgia, said the majority of cargoes handled by the service are exports from China.
A feeder vessel between the Georgian port of Batumi and the Romanian port of Constanta has been launched as a joint project between ADY Container and Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping Company (ASCO).
The vessel that delivers containers from Batumi to Constanta and back will have six departures a month, or every 10 days. From Romania, cargo is transported by rail to different destinations in Europe.
ADY Container said the new railway-sea connection between China and Europe will ensure the integrity of the supply chain in the current complex situation and will allow China and Europe to connect quickly and efficiently through Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Romania.
More than 9,000 TEUs have passed through the Trans-Caspian route in the first four months of 2022 – up 30% compared with the volume in the same period last year.
With the current geopolitical situation in Europe, ADY Container expects trafficvia the Middle Corridor to further increase, which would also require adding more vessels to service the route.
In March this year, global logistics giant Maersk started a similar multimodal service linking China to Europe via the Middle Corridor as port congestions in Europe arising from sanctions against Russia for its war against Ukraine caused shipping problems for its customers.
BICT has been active in the port of Batumi since 2007, when it acquired a 48-year lease to operate a multipurpose terminal with exclusivity for container handling.
Its parent, ICTSI, headquartered and established in 1988 in Manila, is in the business of port development, management and operations.Its portfolio of terminals and projects are in developed and emerging market economies in the Asia Pacific, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Independent with no shipping or consignee-related interests, ICTSI works and transacts transparently with all stakeholders of the supply chain.
