In June, the Dostyk throughput increased to 14 trains per day after Kazakhstan’s private transport and logistics group, PTC Holding, commissioned the second phase of the Dostyk TransTerminal at the border with China. During the year, from June 2021 to June 2022, 129,000 TEU were transshipped through the said terminal. Moreover, the terminal operator plans to open a representative office in China to offer customers a comprehensive transport from origin to destination, guaranteeing service along the route. The main partner is the Russian-Belarusian-Kazakh transit operator OTLK ERA JSC.
Growth in Transit
The existing infrastructure and capacity of the Dostyk TransTerminal will allow the Dostyk station to increase reception at the Alashankou — Dostyk border crossing to 22 trains per day. Olzhas Shilterkhanov, Director General of PTC Cargo, told Kommersant that the Chinese side received the notice during a meeting between representatives of Kazakh and Chinese railways.
PTC Holding launched the second phase of the Dostyk TransTerminal in late May, increasing its capacity from 160,000 to 320,000 TEU. The first container train from the second line towards Duisburg with appliances from Shenzhen departed on 20 May. The first phase of terminal was launched a year ago, on 5 July 2021.
New Ways
PTC Holding built an additional junction and tracks to bypass the Dostyk station, avoiding traffic jams. The total investment in the project amounted to 23.5 billion tenge, or about USD 49 million. The terminal can now handle 12-15 container trains a day instead of 6.
Another advantage of the terminal is the useful length of the loading tracks, totaling 1,050 m, which allows the formation of complete container trains without splitting it up.
Sales Geography
The main routes handled by the terminal are deliveries to Europe and Russia. During the year to June, the Dostyk TransTerminal handled 129,000 TEU of container traffic. The bulk of transshipment, or 115,000 TEU, came from projects at OTLK ERA, a joint venture of Russian, Belarusian, and Kazakhstan railways serving China-Europe-China transit through member countries. PTC Cargo’s own projects handled 14,000 TEU, of which 9,400 ones were cargoes destined for Russia and 3,100 for Europe, with the remaining volumes coming from Uzbekistan and imports to Kazakhstan.
Expansion Plans
The Dostyk station is being rebuilt with construction of a new passing track, but further on there is an 830 km Dostyk — Moiynty section where Kazakh Railways (Kazakhstan Temir Zholy) is undertaking a major project to extend the passing tracks and build a second track.
The implementation of the third phase is scheduled until 2025. For now, the company is considering the need for a third phase, while analyzing customer demand, such as construction of a ramp for reloading vehicles.
