Baltic States – CIS, China, Good for Business, Latvia, Railways, Transport

This was agreed upon by Latvijas Dzelzcels President Ugis Magonis and Kazakhstan Temir Joly ("Kazakhstan Railways") President Askar Mamin during a meeting in Riga.

Kazakhstan Railways has been an excellent cooperation partner for Latvijas Dzelzcels for many years. This year, Latvijas Dzelzcels has managed to achieve a considerable increase in the volume of cargo transported from Kazakhstan. Latvijas Dzelzcels has been working on diversifying cargo transportation for several years. At the moment, the company's cargo transportation is dominated by cargo from Russia, constituting more than 65% of the company's total cargo volume. Taking into account that Russia is developing its ports, cargo volume increases in the direction of Latvia may be not as steep as the company would want them to be in the nearest future. Therefore Latvijas Dzelzcels is working on attracting other cargo and cooperation with Kazakhstan has considerable growth opportunities in this regard, explains Magonis.

On June 5, Latvijas Dzelzcels Group's LDz Cargo logistika signed a cooperation agreement with Kazakhstan's Kedentransservis paving the way for Latvijas Dzelzcels on the Chinese market.

Kazakhstan's role in Asia is "very important". NATO transports its cargo through Kazakhstan to Afghanistan. Latvijas Dzelzcels hopes by cooperating with Kazakstan Railways to be able to attract cargo from China, points out Magonis.