Promoting rail freight transport from Vietnam to Kazakhstan

On the sidelines of the official visit to Vietnam of President of Kazakhstan Kassym - Jomart Tokayev, Vietnam Railways Corporation ( VNR ) had a working session with Kazakhstan National Railways Joint Stock Company (KTZ).

According to VNR, Vietnam Railways connects with the Kazakhstan railway system via the Chinese railway at two border stations, Lao Cai and Dong Dang.

The Vietnam - Kazakhstan international container train departs from Dong Dang station.

Goods transported between Vietnam and Kazakhstan mainly use the sea route between Vietnam's seaport and Lianyungang in China, while between Lianyungang and Kazakhstan, they are transported by rail. This is a low-cost mode of transport because it takes advantage of the sea route and the east-west corridor of China's railway.

Since 2019, two container trains (each carrying 12-14 containers) have been regularly operated every week from Vietnam to China and continue on intermodal trains running through China - Europe, transiting through Kazakhstan to EU countries.

The volume of goods transported by rail in 2020 from Yen Vien station (Vietnam) to China and then imported into China-Europe trains, transiting Kazakhstan reached 1,674 TEUs; in 2021 it reached 3,486 TEUs; in 2022 it reached 2,676 TEUs and in the first 6 months of 2023 it reached 1,390 TEUs.

However, between Vietnam and Kazakhstan, there is no organization to transport goods by rail on trains running through, but mainly groups of wagons connected to China - Europe trains. The main reason is that the railway fares are still high, there is not enough cargo volume to organize container trains running through, and the shippers do not have a two-way cargo flow to take advantage of empty routes.

International container train at Khorgos station - Kazakhstan's border station with China.

From here, VNR and KTZ agreed to increase the transport of goods by railway between Vietnam and Kazakhstan, improving the capacity of transporting goods and containers by rail through the Dong Dang (Vietnam) - Pingxiang (China) border gate.

At the same time, coordinate in the field of logistics, use the infrastructure capabilities of VNR and KTZ; Cooperate in investing in developing logistics infrastructure and warehouses in Vietnam and Kazakhstan; Cooperate in training human resources in the field of railways and logistics; Cooperate in research and application of technology towards green transformation, using green fuel.