Kazakhstan's Aktau and Kuryk seaports ready to be placed under private management - minister

ASTANA. Nov 17 (Interfax) - Kazakhstan is ready to hand the Aktau and Kuryk seaports to a private company for trust management on condition that this company ensures that the ports operate at their design shipment capacity, Transport Minister Marat Karabayev said.

"We have two key ports [Aktau and Kuryk]. We are ready to place them under trust management by a private company, if we find a suitable company," Karabayev said during Kazakhstan Global Investment Roundtable-2023 in Astana.

The Transport Ministry is also considering a possibility of selling stakes in the seaports on a ship-or-pay basis.

"Provided that the ports operate at their design capacity, we are ready to transfer them to a private operator," the minister said.

The Kuryk seaport, 100 kilometers from the Aktau international seaport, is part of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route that starts in China and goes to Turkey and European countries through Kazakhstan, the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan and Georgia. The handling capacity of the Kuryk seaport is 6 million tonnes of cargo a year.

National Company Aktau Commercial Seaport JSC is under 100% trust management of National Company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, the national railway operator. The Aktau seaport is situated on the Mangyshlak peninsula of the Caspian Sea. The handling capacity of the port is 2.5 million tonnes of dry cargoes a year, 4,000 tonnes of grain, 12 million tonnes of oil and 2 million tonnes of ferry cargoes.