Kazakhstan interested in Lithuanian port

  • 2001-08-02
  • BNS
VILNIUS - The port of Aktau in Kazakhstan is interested in sending more cargo through Lithuania's port of Klaipeda.

Representatives from Aktau, Kazakhstan's only merchant sea port, visited Klaipeda on July 26 to discuss the possibility of directing more Kazakh cargo through the Lithuanian sea port, the daily Klaipeda reported.

It was the first visit of Kazakh port representatives since the signing of a cooperation agreement between Klaipeda and Aktau during the visit of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev to Lithuania this April.

The representatives said that if Russia imposed more favorable tariffs on cargo transportation through its territory, Kazakhstan would send metals, oil products, grain and cotton through Klaipeda.

At present, Kazakhstan is shipping about 300,000 tons of cotton per year through Riga's port. But it is not satisfied with handling and transportation tariffs in the port.

If Russian railroad tariffs remained as unfavorable as they are now, Kazakh and Uzbek cotton could reach Lithuania via the Volga-Baltic Channel or Ukraine.

According to Klaipeda, Aktau has four berths for dry-cargo ships and four berths for oil products. The port's capacity is 1.5 million tons of cargo per year.

Kazakhstan's government has already adopted a decision to increase the port's capacity fourfold and to establish new infrastructure there, including new berths for the handling of containers, gas and cotton.

Last year 1.06 million tons of Kazakh cargo, mostly iron alloys, were shipped through Klaipeda.