TEHRAN, Iran, July 25.Russia is operating major cargo transportation in the Caspian Sea and Iran is required to enhance investment in the hinterland of its northern ports to increase maritime transportation, said a member of the association of transportation companies Masoud Daneshmand, Trend reports citing ILNA.
Russia does not allow Iran to increase the number of its transportation fleet in the Caspian Sea since it would affect their revenues, he said referring to the effect of the Iran and Russia cooperation agreement on northern ports.
"Ships have to pass through Volga – Don shipping Canal and this route is exclusively owned by Russia, even though Russians show no objection to increasing of Iran but in reality, they should approve the permits of Iranian ships for cargo transportation," he said.
Daneshmand underlined Iran and Russia's agreement to increase transportation via northern ports to 10 million tons adding that Iranian and Russian ports do not have the capacity to increase transportation to this level.
Iran's northern ports have 16 wharves that annually operate transportation of six million tons of commodity and their maximum capacity is seven million tons which is not significant while Russians regularly transport goods on this route.
According to the official, Russia sets the transportation rate on the Caspian Sea route since most active ships are owned by Russia and the constantly changing prices affect the cargo owners.