A recent visit of the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, to Poland was an opportunity to tighten economic relations between the two countries aimed at, among other things, increasing exports of Polish food and agricultural products and strengthening the presence of Polish companies on the Kazakhstani market.

Being the ninth largest country in the world in terms of territory, Kazakhstan is one of the most rapidly growing countries in Central Asia. It remains steady in its efforts to foster international trade co-operation and is interested in diversifying the economy based on raw materials which account for approx. 90% of its exports (mostly petroleum and natural gas). It has large deposits of coal, zinc, manganese and uranium. Having recognized the potential of the market ROHLIG SUUS Logistics ensures a comprehensive offering of transports on that route to its customers.

As a comprehensive logistics operator with worldwide capacities, it has been handling regular transports to Kazakhstan by rail (freight wagons and 20” and 40” containers), by road (full-truckload and less-than-truckload) and by air. We also offer comprehensive customs clearance services by our own customs agency and handle multilateral transactions and document neutralization.

Despite the fact that Kazakhstan’s territory far exceeds the territory of Poland, there are few metropolitan areas with large distances between them comparable to the distance between the Polish seaside and the Tatra mountains. The road and rail structure is well developed only in populated regions, i.e. in the north and south. ROHLIG SUUS Logistics offers regular connections to major cities in the entire country, i.e. Almaty, Astana, Pavlodar, Karaganda (Qaraghandy), Aktobe, Petropavl, Uralsk (Oral), Atyrau and Kokshetau.

However, current political relations between Russia and Ukraine affect the way in which our transports are handled. Iwetta Drewko Bieńkowska, Rail Freight Director at ROHLIG SUUS Logistics says - The relations between those two countries render it somewhat difficult to handle shipments to Kazakhstan which involve transit through the territory of Russia or require crossing the Ukraine’s territory. Military operations were followed by embargoes imposed on Russia on the exports of different groups of commodities and, as a result, transports of certain goods were limited. Moreover, Kazahstani’s tenge being unstable is another factor to be considered - stressed the operator’s representative.

Regardless of the current political situation, Kazakhstan remains among Asia’s most promising markets and is highly absorptive and diversified in terms of demand for products. Key commodity groups shipped by the operator to Kazakhstan include automotive products, food products such as deep-frozen meat, and construction products (including construction chemistry goods) which are highly in demand on the dynamically growing market in Kazakhstan. Moreover its customers value Polish interior design products (e.g. ceramic tiles and fittings) which are of comparable quality as those imported from other European countries but more cost-competitive, whereas Poland imports large quantities of durum wheat from Kazakhstan needed for the production of pasta and other processed goods.