Antwerp Port Authority’s two subsidiaries have entered a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Baku International Sea Trade Port to provide consultancy and training to further develop the Port of Baku.
The Port of Baku is claimed to be Azerbaijan’s largest port on the Black Sea.
The subsidiaries, Port of Antwerp International (PAI) and Antwerp Port Training Centre (APEC), will provide consultancy and training services to the Baku port management and offer assistance with planning the new port and associated logistics zone.
PAI CEO Jan Blomme said: "This agreement is the direct result of a visit to Antwerp in May this year by the director-general of the Port of Baku, Taleh Ziyadov."
A new logistics centre will also be developed for Baku, which will provide a wide range of added-value services for shippers, with room for 100,000 containers in the first instance.
Construction on the International Sea Trade Port started in November 2010, and is being carried out in three phases.
In the first phase, the port’s transhipment volume will be expanded to ten million tonnes and 50,000 containers per year.
Under the second phase, the volume of the port will be further increased to 17 million tonnes and 150,000 containers.
The volume is expected to increase to 25 million tonnes and one million containers per annum by the end of the third phase.
The Port of Baku is said to be a crucial step in the development of the ‘New Silk Road’, which is an overland trade route between China and Europe.
