ASTANA (TCA) — The time of delivery of Kazakhstan’s grain to China by rail has been reduced fourfold with the launch of a new train service from Atbasar railway station, the press-office of Kazakhstan’s national railways company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ) said.
According to Atbasar station head Serik Kainidenov, the train consisting of 53 boxcars of KTZ and weighing 4.5 thousand tons arrives at the Dostyk station on the Kazakh-Chinese border 36 hours after the departure. The train runs at a speed of 800 km per day, which is about four times faster than conventional freight trains.
In Kainidenov’s words, according to quarantine requirements of the customs service of China, Kazakh grain is packed in sacks. Taking into account the shortening of delivery by approximately 4 times, the turnover of cars is accelerated, the quality of cargo transportation is increased, and the safety of cargo is ensured.
The advantages of this type of service are also noted by shippers.
LLP Berkat-Export sent 20 wagons with grain to China. The company head said, “If earlier trains to China delivered our cargo for a week, now it takes less than two days. Now within a week we can load twice as much grain. In addition, the train can be traced in online mode.”
Since the beginning of the year, the national railways company has delivered about 7 million tons of grain to customers, including 4.6 million tons for export. More than 320 thousand tons of wheat was sent to China.
