In brief: German logistics group Rhenus said on 9 October it plans to build up to 14 terminals along the Middle Corridor, the trade route also known as the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, linking Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Türkiye to its existing European network.
The lead project is a new trimodal container terminal in Aktau, Kazakhstan, developed with Kazakhstan’s national railway operator KTZ and the Port of Aktau; the site will cover at least 30 hectares and add at least 150,000 TEU a year of capacity — nearly double the corridor’s reported 2025 container traffic. The agreement was signed 30 September at the Kazakhstan-Germany Business Forum in Berlin, and the project now enters a feasibility and traffic-flow study phase. Rhenus is separately investing around €11 million to modernize a terminal in Andijan, Uzbekistan. The European Commission has said it aims to mobilize up to €12 billion for the corridor, targeting a tripling of trade flows by 2030.
For shippers routing cargo between Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, more terminal capacity along the corridor should ease current bottlenecks and give forwarders an alternative to routes through Russia, though the new capacity will take years to build out before it is usable at scale.
Source: Euronews.