Kazakhstan launched on Tuesday a shorter railway route bound for its only Caspian Sea port of Aktau, which will make cheaper the Central Asian state's exports of oil, grain and metals. The $230 million, 404-km (250-mile) railway stretch runs from the northern grain-belt of Kostanai region to the nearby oil- and metal-producing Aktobe region. It will cut by almost 2,000 km (1,250 miles) the delivery of export commodities from the country's north and centre to Aktau.
"Each tonne of grain bound for Aktau will now be cheaper by $20," Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said at the ceremony opening of the new route in the Kustanai region.
"Each tonne of rolled steel shipped from (the central region of) Karaganda will be $14 cheaper," he added.
He did not say what impact the shorter route would have on the export price of Kazakh crude shipped from Aktau.
Aktau plans to increase its turnover of oil and oil products to up to 10.5 million tonnes (220,000 barrels per day) next year from this year's expected 8.0 million tonnes (170,000 bpd). In January-October of this year the port handled 6.74 million tonnes of crude oil and oil products (168,000 bpd).
In the first 10 months of this year Aktau's dry cargo turnover, mainly in grain and metals, rose to 895,761 tonnes from 736,926 tonnes in the same period of 2004.