BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 9. The Middle Corridor [Trans-Caspian International Transport Route] may become competitive, compared to the Northern Corridor, due to its efficiency and transparency, Iain Rawlinson, Chief Commercial Officer at APM Terminals Poti, a company, operating Georgia’s Poti Port, told Trend.
“For the Middle, Corridor to become competitive when the war in Ukraine comes to an end, and the situation across the region normalizes, it is going to require that the Middle Corridor is extremely efficient in creating the transparent, effective rail-sea-real transportation links,” he said.
According to Rawlinson, it is very hard to give a forecast for this year, because uncertainties posed by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, as well as the continued implications of COVID-19 in China, directly affect the global supply chain. However, today, Chinese cargo, which is historically run through Russia, is being handled very well through the Middle Corridor.
As the chief commercial officer explained, the Russian corridor between China and Europe is pretty good, although there are challenges on the board between Belarus and Poland. Today, all the players on the Middle Corridor need to drive the concept of the Central Asia - Caucasus market as a part of the Chinese market, because, as Rawlinson thinks, the Chinese market will ultimately tend to move back to the Northern Corridor when it reopens.
“The Middle Corridor will remain highly competitive when the Northern Corridor reopens to the overall benefit of Georgia and Azerbaijan. The opportunities for the countries on the Corridor to take advantage of the infrastructure and connectivity, and then to start driving local industries, are enormous,” he said.
As Rawlinson noted, the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) of both Azerbaijan and Georgia need to set up and take advantage of the connection the Corridor creates, and therefore, drive the economic growth in the two countries.
“We see that it is not enough for us to look just at our own business. APM Terminals engages closely with infrastructure providers from Azerbaijan, as well as Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. We also work with all major shipping lines to connect Poti to the European ports, such as Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey, as well as with the European railway operators, especially in Poland and Germany, to secure the connectivity, communication, and transparency of the Middle Corridor,” he added.
APM Terminals is a port operating company headquartered in the Netherlands and is a unit of the Transport and Logistics division of the Danish Maersk shipping company.