Dagestan’s Makhachkala Port Targeting Exports To The Middle East & Asia

Dagestan’s Makhachkala Commercial Sea Port (MCSP) is negotiating the export of fertilizers and timber products to Asia and the Middle East, according to Sergei Melikov, the Head of the Dagestan Republic. He was speaking during a conference on the development of transport in Dagestan. The Republic is part of the Russian Federation and has a Caspian Sea coastline, making ports such as Makhachkala part of the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) which connects Russia through Azerbaijan and Iran to the middle east and south Asia.

Melikov said “As part of the activities of the North-South international transport corridor, the Makhachkala Commercial Seaport is expanding the range of goods intended for transportation. Negotiations are underway to export fertilizers and timber to Iran, Iraq, India, and other countries in Asia and the Middle East.” He added that as part of the port development measures, it is planned to build a four-lane separate access road to the port with a length of 6.2 km.

Transportation of Russian goods along the INSTC is expected to double by 2030, to 32 million tonnes. The route is an alternative to the sea routes from Europe to the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean through the Suez Canal. The INSTC’s 7,200 km, multimodal route extends from St. Petersburg to Iran and India – and vice-versa.

Makhachkala Sea Port is the only Russian ice-free and deep-water port in the Caspian Sea. It is a link between the transport system of southern Russia and the states of Central Asia, Iran, Transcaucasia and other countries of the region. Currently, the company has 12 berths, three dry-cargo terminals and four auxiliary fleet vessels for transhipment and transportation of goods. The port’s capacity at the beginning of 2024 was 8.3 million tonnes, of which 6.5 million tonnes were for bulk cargo and 1.8 million tonnes for dry cargo.