Kazakhstan is striving to become a global logistics hub. And how are transportation services carried out across the country now?

Kazakhstan’s logistical role has always been significant due to its proximity to China, but after many states imposed sanctions on Russia in 2022, even greater cargo flows went through the republic. As the country’s Vice Minister of Transport Satzhan Ablaliyev recently said, in just 9 months of this year, the transit of goods through Kazakhstan increased by 44%, and if we take transportation from China separately, then it doubled at once. At the same time, Kazakhstan remains an important transit link for Russian companies.

”In fact, until September 2023, half of our cargo from China was in transit through Kazakhstan, but now it is only 20-30%,” Roman Perederko, head of the Chinese FTL/LTL direction of Stalogistic, began immediately with difficulties.

”In September, restrictions were imposed on a number of goods in Kazakhstan, and inspections began on the Kazakh side, which increased the time to cross the border and, accordingly, transportation costs. In the first weeks, the cars were inspected for 5-10 days and the amount of additional costs for paying for a temporary storage warehouse was very large. The delay is 2-3 days now. Because of this, we have redirected most of our cargo and are now transporting it through Manchuria-Zabaikalsk or Mongolia,” he explained.

When is it being transported through Kazakhstan?

In general, as representatives of logistics companies said, Kazakhstan is used not only for the transit of Chinese goods, but also for the delivery of goods from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan and Afghanistan. “We use transit through Kazakhstan only for delivery from China to Uzbekistan, Russia, the Republic of Belarus and the EU,” Roman Perederko said, specifying that the most profitable and convenient are the transportation of goods through the neighboring republic to the Ural Federal District of Russia and Uzbekistan.

Transportation difficulties

In Stalogistic, the main problem of transit through Kazakhstan is called additional costs, which are associated with enhanced cargo inspection at the border crossing. “In the summer, there were problems with obtaining three—way permits, but this case was quickly resolved,” adds Roman Perederko.

Difficulties at the border

“When launching, the electronic queue system on the border of Kazakhstan with China worked with failures. Reservations were deleted from the system for unknown reasons. After testing, the system worked in full, and to this day there are no problems with obtaining an armor,” Roman Perederko confirms.

The only thing, he recalls, in October, updated booking rules were introduced, including for replacing a tractor or trailer. “It made the process a bit more complicated, but the market was able to adapt quickly, and everything is fine at the moment,” the Stalogistic representative continues.

The state of the road infrastructure

At the same time, all the interviewed representatives of logistics companies have practically no significant complaints about the state of the road infrastructure in Kazakhstan.

The only thing is that there are complaints about the quality of the roadway in some areas in the eastern part of the republic, according to Stalogistic.