In a meeting between Head of Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) Ali-Akbar Safaei and Kazakh Ambassador to Tehran Askhat Orazbay on Monday, the two sides discussed ways of expanding maritime ties, including the establishment of a direct shipping line in Caspian Sea.

Speaking in this meeting, Safaei stressed the need for the development of logistics and maritime cooperation between the two countries and voiced PMO’s readiness for awarding maritime and port projects both in the north and south of the country to Kazakh contracting companies, the PMO portal reported.

Orazbay, for his part, pointed to a visit of Kazakhstan’s expert delegations to Iran to assess the facilities and equipment of Amirabad and Shahid Rajaei ports over the past year and said that the investment of Kazakh companies in Iran’s ports is under consideration.

Iran and Kazakhstan inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the expansion of cooperation in the agriculture and trade fields as well as industries, logistics, transportation and technology transfer in Tehran last November.

The MOU was signed by Javad Sadati-Nejad, the Iranian agriculture minister, and Zhumangarin Serik, the deputy prime minister and minister of trade and integration of Kazakhstan, who visited Tehran on top of a Kazakh delegation.

As reported, the effort of the two countries in order to increase the value of bilateral trade to about one billion dollars, based on the agreements of the presidents of the two countries, is considered in the MOU.

Kazakhstan, one of the world’s largest oil exporters, has revealed its plans to halt the export of oil products for a four-month period.

The statement issued by the Kazakh State Revenue Committee on February 8 stated that the order will come into effect 10 calendar days after the announcement.

“The ban applies to gasoline, diesel fuel, and other petroleum products with the exception of lubricants,” Interfax reported, citing the statement.

With the export ban, the country aims to protect its own domestic energy supply and to ensure that the citizens of Kazakhstan are not deprived of the energy they needed to survive.

The move extends a similar ban on oil products, which was introduced in November 2021 and later expired on May 21, 2022, a time when the country was struggling with a shortage of motor fuels.

Kazakhstan is the ninth-largest crude oil exporter globally. The country holds three percent of the world’s total oil reserves, and it is the third-largest oil producer in the Caspian region, after Russia and Iran, but has a lack of direct access to the ocean. Kazakhstan doesn’t have a pipeline to export Kazakh gas to the EU. Novorossiysk on the Black Sea is the main route to export oil from the world's largest landlocked country.

With over 70 percent of its oil exports going to the EU, Kazakhstan is already the third-largest non-OPEC supplier of the bloc, which is considered one of the most prolific markets for energy exporters, given its lack of domestic resources.

The country entered the global oil market in 1993 after the country’s government and Chevron agreed to establish a giant oil-production venture, Tengizchevroil, to produce oil in two big fields near the Caspian Sea. In 1997, Kazakhstan signed a production-sharing agreement with seven international companies, including Agip, British Gas, BP, Mobil, Shell, Statoil, and Total.

The ban in Kazakhstan came days after the EU embargo on imports of Russian fuels and the price cap on diesel and other products came into effect. On February 5, the G7+ Coalition and all EU Member States adopted further price caps for Russian seaborne crude in a bid to both deprive Moscow of a major revenue stream and curb surging global energy prices.

The embargo has been coupled with price caps for deliveries to third nations, agreed upon with the G7 in the same way that the EU and the G7 coordinated the price cap on Russian crude last year. 

So far, two price caps have been established for Russian petroleum products: one for "premium-to-crude" petroleum goods like diesel, kerosene, and gasoline, and the other for "discount-to-crude" petroleum products like fuel oil and naphtha. The first price cap was set at $100 per barrel, while the second was set at $45 per barrel.

Under the deal, EU and G7 countries will ban banks from financing the purchase and sale of Russian oil, insurance companies from insuring shipments, and ports from unloading oil transported by tankers if it is traded at a higher price than that fixed by the European Union.

The European Union's price cap was sharply criticized by Russia. In early February, Moscow imposed a ban on the sale of oil to states and entities that support the price cap imposed on Russian oil. With the exception of situations that require special permission from the president, the ban will be in effect for five months. The move also prohibits purchasing raw materials from Russia, even through intermediary countries or supply chains.

Ethiopia penned a trade agreement with Pakistan with a view to strengthening its trade relationship with the Asian country. Kassahun Gofe, State Minister of the Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration, said, “I strongly believe that the signing of this trade agreement is a good platform to establish a joint trade committee meeting and consult on measures that ensure the development of the two countries and reduce trade barriers”.

The bilateral trade agreement allows for the establishment of a joint trade committee and business council. It also enables the two countries to join hands in the elimination of non-tariff barriers. According to Kassahun Gofe, Ethiopia will work towards ratifying the agreement within a short period of time.

Business ties between Ethiopia and Pakistan have been growing in the past years. As an indication of the increased engagement between the two countries, Ethiopia established its Embassy in Pakistan in 2022. Ethiopia and Pakistan have also agreed to strengthen their relationships in several sectors. In this regard, Ethiopian Airlines started operating direct flights between Addis Ababa and Karachi in December 2022.

China’s trade with Afghanistan has been growing fast and it may become the second largest trading nation with Afghanistan in 2023 after Pakistan.

China’s trade with Afghanistan has been growing fast and it may become the second largest trading nation with Afghanistan in 2023 after Pakistan, a situation that bodes well for the continuation of the CPEC part of the Belt & Road Initiative into Afghanistan.

According to China customs data, in December 2022, China imported US$9.09 million from Afghanistan and exported US$59 million, resulting in a positive trade balance for China of US$49.9 million.

Were these figures projected as a 2023 average this would result in a bilateral trade figure of US$816 million. Pakistan, currently the largest Afghani trade partner, achieved bilateral trade of US$1.513 billion in 2022, according to the State Bank of Pakistan. India, which has been in second place, had bilateral trade with Afghanistan of US$545 million last year, according to the Indian Ministry of Commerce.

Between December 2021 and December 2022 Chinese exports increased by 56.4% but imports slightly decreased by less than 1%. In December 2022 the top exports from Afghanistan to China were nuts, animal hair, semi-precious stones, dried fruits, and vegetable products. In December 2022, the top exports of China to Afghanistan were synthetic filaments, yarn woven fabrics, rubber tires, other synthetic fabrics, semiconductors, and unspecified commodities.

Issues with the redevelopment of Afghanistan remain significant. There is little accurate data or records keeping, and a dearth of pertinent equipment and training for Afghanistan to adequately manage regional trade with its neighbours, although China, Pakistan and India do possess – for them – adequate monitoring and analytical infrastructure. However, this seems not to be the case with Afghanistan’s trade with neighbouring Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, where statistics appear almost impossible to obtain. A large part of Afghanistan redevelopment therefore should be the border and border control, customs and national infrastructure required to ensure tariffs on transit and imported and exported goods can be effectively managed.

The other issue remains that Afghanistan, with a population of 40 million and therefore one of the largest in Central Asia, remains essentially an agricultural play as can be seen from its exports. The proposed extension of CPEC into Afghanistan would help to industrialise the nation – providing countries like Russia Iran  and Turkmenistan can be allowed to install and develop Afghani energy fields to get the Afghanistan energy reserves to where they are most needed.

China’s developing basic trade example is almost a parable for the regional proverb ‘From Apricot stones grow larger trees’.

The Indian government approved Bangladesh’s transshipment cargo to be handled at the Delhi Air Cargo complex. An air freight window for Bangladesh transit cargo is available from February 15, according to India’s Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC).

Since June 2020 till now, Bangladeshi shippers have had air freight access from the Kolkata air cargo complex. However, the fewer flight connections there, including for freighters, had put pressure on their ability to take advantage of this alternative trade corridor.

CBEC said using the Delhi Air Cargo facility would improve cargo evacuation and logistics efficiency, as per reports.

Transshipment through India can also lead to significant cost savings for Bangladeshi exporters, as it allows them to take advantage of the lower air cargo rates and more competitive shipping options available through Delhi Air Cargo, added the neighbouring country’s industry insiders, as per reports.

Transshipment through Delhi Air Cargo will allow Bangladesh exporters to reach a wider reach of markets, including those in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, which may not be accessible directly from Bangladesh, mentioned stakeholders.

Also, the Delhi air freight opening builds on a sea-rail multimodal logistics system CBEC laid out in September to permit transshipment of Bangladesh export containers from Nhava Sheva and Mundra ports by sea.

Under this trans loading arrangement, laden boxes from Bangladesh are transported by barge or coastal ships to Kolkata or Haldia, and then loaded onto trains connecting Nhava Sheva or Mundra.

Historically, for sea freight, in the absence of direct mainline services, Bangladesh containers have mostly been feedered to Sri Lanka’s Colombo Port or Singapore.

The alternative transshipment facilitation push, both for sea and air services, comes as the Bangladesh government and local exporters are looking to capitalise on global sourcing shifts away from China, with RMG goods leading that migration.

Both BSAA Chairman Syed M Arif and BCSA General Secretary AS Chowdhury confirmed the development.

The forced shipment of empty containers from the yard of the Chattogram port is finally coming to an end, a positive development for foreign shipping liners as it would allow them to avoid the financial losses they have been incurring for the last six years.

During a meeting the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) assured the Bangladesh Shipping Agents Association (BSAA) and the Bangladesh Container Shipping Association (BCSA) that the practice would be discontinued.

Both BSAA Chairman Syed M Arif and BCSA General Secretary AS Chowdhury confirmed the development. The CPA would soon issue an official order to this effect.

The port authorities may attach some conditions, including moving away empty containers through preferable vessels or shifting them to private off-docks after keeping them at the yard for three days, said an official of the port.

After being unloaded at the port, cargoes from a good number of import-laden containers are delivered from the port’s premises. A portion of these empty containers are sent to inland container depots (ICDs), also known as private off-docks, for storage for the time being and the rest are kept at the port’s yards.

Some empty containers are also imported for the shipment of export cargo and kept at the yards as well.

But in the wake of severe container congestion at the country’s premier seaport for months in 2015 and 2016, the authorities introduced the forced shipment of empty containers to decongest the yard.

Though it is not practised in the global shipping trade, shipping agents said they had extended cooperation to the CPA at that time. The move helped ease congestion to a large extent.

The authorities enforce the forced shipment of empty containers whenever they pile up and the designated space for the boxes reaches its capacity.

But since the initiative has still remained in place, container-owning foreign main line operators (MLOs) are facing multiple challenges.

Usually, MLOs maintain long-term agreements with feeder vessel operators, which carry goods-laden as well as empty containers to nearby ports in other countries. The deals clearly specify the allocation of slots in vessels, the discharge of containers at destination ports, and the cost.

But the port authorities implement the forced shipment of empty containers by loading them onto any anchored feeder vessel. And problems emerge when MLOs don’t have any agreements with the vessels.

Foreign MLOs, which operate containers in Bangladesh, have recently raised questions with their agents about the practice. This led the BSAA to write to the CPA on Saturday and request it to stop it.