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The railway administrations of Azerbaijan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, China and Austria have agreed to establish the Eurasian Transport Route Association with headquarters in Baku. The decision was made after a consultative meeting in the Azerbaijani capital on Friday.
“All official procedures will be completed in the near future and the Eurasian Transport Route International Association will be established,” announced Rovshan Rustamov, Chairman of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC, at a press conference.
The meeting brought together the heads of railway administrations of the participating countries to discuss the framework of the project.
Rustamov emphasised the importance of forming a collegiate body to enhance the competitiveness of the Middle Corridor, also known as the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR).
This corridor connects China, Kazakhstan, the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and eventually European countries.
“The association has to carry out structured work, develop a corridor concept, formulate a tariff policy and explore the implementation of digital solutions to ensure faster and safer transport,” Rustamov explained.
The aim is to make the Central Corridor more efficient and attractive for international trade and to improve the overall operation of the route.
Despite the well-publicised drought that hampered its capacity, container vessel transits through the Panama Canal this year barely showed a dip, thanks to the carriers’ deep pockets.
According to the Panama Canal Authority (ACP)’s full-year 2024 results, while movements of all vessel types fell 29.4% year on year, to 9,926 up to the end of September, containership transits were basically unchanged, at 2,733 – a reduction of just 14, equating to a 0.5% drop.
However, these figures are for both the original locks and the neo-panamax locks which opened in 2014 – and containership movements through the latter increased, to 1,787, a gain of 2.1% over 2023. This meant the proportion of containerships to total vessels increased from around 20% to 26%.
Shipping analyst Alphaliner explained that the newer locks were proving increasingly popular with container carriers, which over the past few years had introduced scores of neo-panamax vessels (of up to 14,000 teu) to services that transit the waterway, particularly on the Asia-US east coast strings. Of all the box vessels transiting the canal, 63% passed through the neo-panamax locks, compared with 48% in 2023.
“Cash-rich container carriers were able to take advantage of a stricter reservation system introduced by the canal authority during the drought, including expensive auctioned slots, while other ship types, particularly dry bulk, opted to re-route leaving more slots open,” Alphaliner writes today.
The drought from a lack of rainfall began to impact water levels in the canal in the early months of last year, reached a nadir towards the end of 2023 and the authority warned transits could be slashed by as much as 50% by February this year.
However, careful water management and a welcome return of rain this year has seen ACP now offering 35 daily transits, slightly below its design capacity of 36 to 38.
Meanwhile, in a speech given to the New York Maritime Forum yesterday, ACP administrator Ricaurte Vasquez said the organisation’s efficiency measures in response to the drought had resulted in 1% reduction in vessel wait times. That translated to an average of 15 hours less wait, a 1% reduction in transit times from when a vessel arrives at the first lock until it exits the last one, a 4% reduction in time spent in the canal, with an average decrease of 16 hours, and a 5% reduction in water usage per transit for neo-panamax vessels.
And despite the reduced traffic, ACP saw 2024 revenue increase 9%, to $3.5bn, up from $3.2bn the year before.
Last month, Mr Vasquez told the Panama Stock Exchange’s 2025 Investors Forum: “We designed a different pricing structure based on the locks used by ships, thereby establishing a value for water usage.
“Other countries place an economic value on oil or minerals, and we have established the economic value of fresh water from the lake. This way, our strategy, adapted to the environmental reality, allowed us to optimise revenues, reduce operating costs and maintain our competitiveness in the market.”
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Forwarders are growing increasingly concerned over the wave of storms battering the southern US states, as fears of long-lasting fallout from last week’s port strike recede.
Dockers agreed to suspend the strike for new negotiations, but the three-day action on the east and Gulf coasts led to concern that supply chains could experience major delays.
However, it appears that the fallout from the strike has been negligible – in part thanks to supply chain operators thinking ahead and front-loading goods in and out of the ports.
Jackson Campos corporate director at Brazil-based forwarder AGL Cargo, told: “Our average delay has been a week, but we’ve seen shorter too.
“We front-loaded and sought to get goods into the US ahead of schedule, but we also had goods on the water as the strike was unfolding and have seen some of our goods get in as planned.”
But Mr Campos expressed more concern over the impact of the current hurricane season. When Hurricane Helene made landfall across Florida and Georgia in late September, there were port closures and delays at airports.
Today, Hurricane Milton – said to be the one of the most powerful for almost a century – is moving into the Atlantic, leaving behind floods, storm surges and violent winds across the ‘Sunshine State’.
More than three million homes and businesses are without power and a number of deaths have been reported. Ports including Jacksonville remain closed.
“As things stand, airports like Miami have remained open but we have been warned by carriers to expect delays,” Mr Campos continued.
“Atlanta was hit by last month’s hurricane but where possible we have been attempting to divert volumes destined for Miami that way, but we are certainly more concerned by these climactic events than we have been by the strikes.”
Airports closed on Tuesday ahead of the storm and responders are now attempting to open major highways and arteries; at the height of the storm, with winds of up to 150mph spawning a number of tornadoes, it was considered too dangerous for emergency services to respond to callouts.
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Indian apparel industry stakeholders appear to have tasted some early incremental gains from the turmoil plaguing Bangladesh trade after the recent political upheaval that dethroned the government.
According to the latest data, India’s ready-made garment (RMG) exports, by value, in August surged 12% year on year, the highest monthly expansion in the fiscal year that began in April.
“While the global garment sourcing [sector] is realigning, we are ready to play a significant role,” said Sudhir Sekhri, chairman of India’s Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC).
“The recent surge in RMG exports is a testament to the increasing trust global brands have started reposing on India-made products.”
The AEPC chief said the higher growth was especially significant as it had come in a challenging environment, squeezed by the persistent Red Sea crisis and increased logistics costs.
“There is a need for the right push and support from the government, especially when the world is looking for options to switch its sourcing from conventional destinations, due to the changing geopolitical considerations,” Mr Sekhri added.
In contrast, Bangladesh’s export trade, which historically thrives on RMG verticals, seems to have slowed after the domestic crisis hit the business community badly.
According to available data, Chittagong Port has seen fewer export containers in the past two months, a sign that RMG exports were under stress, as global importers remained wary of shouldering the risk of unpredictable production schedules and delivery commitments from the political tension.
Bangladesh’s main cargo gateway saw containerised exports in September dip to 75,603 teu from 78,146 teu in August. However, import flow ticked up, to 117,402 teu from 114,708 teu, as origin points seem to have cleared some input goods order backlogs that had to be suspended earlier, data shows.
“The unrest has had a crippling effect on the Bangladesh RMG industry,” a shipping analyst in Dhaka told The Loadstar. “Violent protests by workers have forced the closure of large swathes of production for months. It will take time to recover.”
Back in India, there is a general view that local exporters – battling a slowdown in demand – must exploit the opportunities from potential trade shifts from Bangladesh, despite the inherent competitive challenges in the absence of duty-free access in major markets.
AEPC and other fellow representative bodies, supported by the government, have been trying to break into new target markets, with some results. Indian RMG exports to Japan, Korea, Australia, Mauritius and Norway recorded significant gains in fiscal Q1, according to industry data.
India’s overall merchandise exports took a hard beating in August, down 9% year on year, after a moderate fall in July, so any additional RMG demand becomes a boost for the country, especially as trade challenges heighten due to the tense West Asia situation.
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