Vessel handling at Baku port has fallen from about 20 hours to four or five, according to Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Digital Development and Transport. That saves around 15–16 hours on one operation. A shipment between Alat and Kuryk can spend longer than that at sea alone: Kazakhstan’s Port of Kuryk puts the crossing at 18 hours in favourable weather.
Three clocks on one crossing
Handling does not start when a haulier delivers the cargo to the port. The shipment can wait for a vessel, enough cargo to load or a change in the weather. There is no fixed ferry timetable, a constraint also noted by shipping company ASCO. Kuryk reports its own handling cycle after arrival: six to eight hours on average for a single-deck ferry and ten to twelve for a double-decker.
Adding four to five hours, 18 hours and six to twelve hours does not produce a delivery commitment. The figures come from different operators, cover different operations and assume favourable weather for the crossing. They leave out queues and do not follow a single consignment.
Berth capacity and delivery time
Container throughput reached 100,000 TEU in January–September, up 29% year on year. One TEU is a twenty-foot equivalent unit, so a forty-foot container counts twice. The port’s current annual container capacity is 160,000 TEU. The 500,000 TEU envisaged under the expansion project is not capacity available today.
Finishing earlier frees up a berth. Whether it also saves an importer time depends on whether the cargo makes the next ferry or connecting train. Measuring that benefit requires timestamps for the same consignment: acceptance at Alat, sailing, unloading at Kuryk and handover to the next carrier. The published figures demonstrate faster port handling but not a 15–16 hour reduction in end-to-end delivery.
