Uzbekistan has secured preferential tariffs for fertiliser and petroleum product shipments through Kazakhstan’s Kuryk port to Georgian ports, as Uzbek cargo volumes across the Caspian continue to rise.
The railway administrations of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have agreed to introduce preferential tariffs for the transit of fertilisers and petroleum products through Kuryk.
The port’s management has also approved preferential rates for shipping petroleum products from Uzbekistan toGeorgian ports.
Kuryk’s location is one of its key advantages. The port is among the closest maritime gateways to the southern regions of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, making it an important link for cargo travelling across the Caspian Sea.
Kuryk has expanded its operational capacity in recent years. Following dredging works in 2024, the time required to process a ferry at the port fell from 20 hours to 12 hours.
The works also allowed ferries to carry an additional 500 tonnes of cargo.
Meanwhile, the port of Aktau, another major Kazakh gateway for Uzbek cargo, handled around 50,000 tonnes of transit cargo destined for Uzbekistan and more than 1,700 containers during the first half of the year.
Aktau has also provided Uzbek exporters with temporary storage facilities, while the two countries are considering further cooperation between their container terminals, including Aktau’s container hub and Uzbekistan’s Chukursay container hub.
The latest tariff agreement comes amid a sharp increase in the volume of Uzbek cargo passing through Kazakhstan’s Caspian ports.
The amount of Uzbek cargo handled through the ports of Aktau and Kuryk increased by more than 60 per cent in 2025.
More broadly, container transit along the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route through Kazakhstan’s ports rose 3.8-fold between 2022 and 2025.
The first stage of the Aktau container hub is already operational. Once the second stage is completed in 2027–2028, its capacity is expected to reach 240,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) per year.
The ports of Aktau and Kuryk form part of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, which connects Central Asia via the Caspian Sea with the South Caucasus, Türkiye and European markets.
Aktau is Kazakhstan’s largest maritime hub, with an annual capacity of around 12 million tonnes. Together, Aktau and Kuryk have a combined maritime infrastructure capacity of approximately 22 million tonnes.
For Uzbekistan, the route provides an additional link to international markets, while the latest tariff preferences could make the transit of key goods, including fertilisers and petroleum products, more competitive.
The growing volume of Uzbek cargo and the expansion of infrastructure at Kazakhstan’s Caspian ports highlight the increasingly important role of the Trans-Caspian route in Uzbekistan’s international trade.
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