Yet another webinar of the “All Ferries” series will be held by IAA PortNews and Marine Engineering Bureau has been slated for 30 September 2020. The online webinar will begin at noon. Registration via Email is needed (av@portnews.ru).
The basic report at the “All Ferries. Caspian Basin” webinar will be delivered by Gennady Yegorov, Professor, head of Marine Engineering Bureau. The roundtable discussion will involve the industry specialists and experts.
Cargo base for the ships operating in the Caspian region is determined by the geographic location of the sea and the demands of the Caspian countries: Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Iran, Turkmenistan and some of their neighboring countries including Georgia, Armenia, Turkey Uzbekistan as well as India, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
For transit cargo transported by the International North–South Transport Corridor from India and the Persian Gulf countries via Iran, Caspian Sea and Russia to Europe is here times shorter as compared with the route via the Suez Canal.
When participating in the roundtable discussion at Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation on 27 April 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin said: “The development of the International North–South Transport Corridor of over 7,000 km offers new prospects as well. It will include establishing railway and road transportation, which will allow for a considerable growth of cargo traffic from South Asia through Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia to Europe… Therefore, our aim is to develop Russia's nationwide transportation network with a view to its integration with Eurasian countries' transportation arteries”.
Totally 19 seagoing ferries of 5 projects are under operation in the Caspian Sea. 13 ferries of them are of railway cargo-passenger type of 3 projects (11611-A, 10802E, 0379). The remaining 4 ferries of 161 project and 2 new ferries of 11612-B project are seagoing car-passenger (cargo-passenger) ferries for passenger and Ro-Ro vehicles transportation.
As of autumn 2020, mean age of these ferries operated on the Caspian Sea lines (19 units) is 24.6 years.
The main transported cargoes are flat-car containers, crude oil and oil products, food and agricultural products, building materials, and also trucks.
On December 13, 2019 Baku Shipyard solemnly launched new lead railway-car-passenger ferry "Azerbaijan" for the Caspian Sea of CNF18C project for "Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping Company". The second one is under construction.
New "open type" CNF18C ferry is assigned for transportation of 100 passengers, 56 railway wagons with 1520 mm track breadth and motor trucks (50 car trains), including ones with dangerous goods. Ferryboat's construction foresees aft cargo handling scheme and is equipped with side ramp for loading/unloading vehicles from/to usual berth.
Ferries of CNF18A and CNF18B design for 100 and 150 passengers respectively were developed in 2014 by Marine Engineering Bureau. With their Ice2 class they are intended for year round operation in the northern part of the Caspian Sea without icebreaker assistance.