China, EU – Baltic States, Good for Business, Latvia, Logistics, Port, Transport

Almat Karimov, director of the container deliveries department at KTZ Express, said during a discussion on transit and logistics at Astana Expo 2017 today that Riga might become a hub for containerizing Scandinavian cargo meant for shipping to China. “These might be China-bound Ikea products and pulp cargos,” the representative of the Kazakh company said.

Karimov noted that KTZ Express is going to open a representation office in the European Union (EU) and if Latvia could arrange cargos for shipping to Asia, the company would be ready to help with that.

Verners Lusis, CEO of Latvia’s LDz Logistika, also said that Riga was the best option for the containerization of Scandinavian cargos.

Riga Container Terminal CEO Valdis Andersons admitted that the lack of backhaul to Asia represents a problem. “At present, the price of rail cargo deliveries is much higher than the price of cargo shipping by sea, and there are not very many clients willing to pay more for a faster delivery,” said Andersons, adding that the terminals operating at the Freeport of Riga would be able to double cargo handling if needed.

In Andersons’ words, the most important task is to “sell Latvia’s geography” to Chinese clients, which Latvia has to do in cooperation with its Kazakh partners.

Dionis Shakhbazov, vice-director for logistics at Kazakhstan’s TransContainer company, stressed that South East Asia, and China in particular, is Europe’s main trade partner, and that many companies are therefore interested in the services provided by TransContainer, which ships cargos mainly through a terminal in Zabaykalsk in Russia. On average, the cargos are delivered to Europe in 15-17 days.

Lusis noted that clients might be attracted to Latvia also thanks to the Salaspils logistics center, which will be built as part of the Rail Baltica project. At this logistics center, cargo might be put to a European-gauge railway line.

Zhaslan Khamzin, CEO of KTZE-Khorgos Gateway, reiterated Kazakhstan’s proposal to develop a joint logistics center with Latvia in Khorgos, at the Chinese border.

“The dry container port of Khorgos is already 125 hectares large and handles five to six container trains a day. In the nearest future, this amount will be increased to 10 container trains a day. The dry port is ready to work with Latvia and is waiting for proposals on cargos,” said Khamzin.

As reported, Astana Expo 2017 opened in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana on June 10, and Latvia is represented in the international fair with its own stand, the Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry reported.

The expo's theme is "Future Energy", and it is aimed to concentrate on the future of energy and on innovative and practical energy solutions and their impacts.

The pavilion of Latvia is called “Energy in Our Nature”. Latvia demonstrates advantages of its geographical location and ways to create added value with Latvian companies and high-level experts in various areas.