Baku Shipyard to build two dry cargo ships for Kazakhstan

Two dry cargo vessels will be built for KTZ Express Shipping LLP, a subsidiary of Kazakhstan Railways (KTZ), under a project whose document exchange ceremony was held in Baku on October 15.

The ceremony took place during Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s working visit to Baku to attend the summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA).

The Samruk-Kazyna Fund’s press service reported the development. Contracts for the construction of the vessels were signed in April 2026.

The ceremony was attended by Nurlan Zhakupov, Chairman of the Management Board of Samruk-Kazyna JSC, and Rashad Nabiyev, Azerbaijan’s Minister of Digital Development and Transport and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of AZCON Holding

The vessels will be built at the Baku Shipyard. The new dry cargo ships are intended to operate along the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR), which connects Asia and Europe.

"Developing its own maritime fleet will enable Kazakhstan to improve the efficiency of cargo transportation management, expand the capacity of the Trans-Caspian route and create additional conditions for attracting international cargo flows," the Samruk-Kazyna Fund said in a statement.

The project is being implemented as part of efforts to carry out Tokayev’s instructions. It aims to develop a multimodal transport and logistics system, strengthen Kazakhstan’s transit potential and reinforce the country’s position along international transport routes.