Kazakhstan officially launched the pilot zone of its new container hub on the Caspian Sea, located within its Aktau port, on June 9.

The container hub is the latest achievement in over a decade of close cooperation between Kazakhstan’s national railway company KTZ and Lianyungang Port in Jiangsu Province.

Covering a total area of approximately 19 hectares, the hub will have an annual handling capacity of 240,000 TEUs. The project is being developed in two phases. Phase I spans 9.1 hectares and includes three railway tracks and around 690 ground container slots. The hub enables full-process operations, including container transshipment, inspection, and hazardous goods management.

The pilot zone will initially focus on transshipment and storage services, laying a solid foundation for the full completion of Phase I later this year.