The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Union are putting up to €45 million into upgrading Kazakhstan’s Aktau port to boost cargo capacity along the Transcaspian Corridor connecting Europe and Central Asia. The financial package includes a €35 million EBRD loan and a potential €10 million EU investment grant to expand container handling at Kazakhstan’s main maritime gateway on the Caspian Sea.
Container cargo at Aktau has jumped 121% year-on-year so far in 2025, creating a bottleneck that the upgrades aim to fix. The money will pay for extending two berths and buying weather-resistant ship-to-shore cranes. EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso said the project tackles “a key infrastructure bottleneck along the Transcaspian Corridor” and fits into the EU Global Gateway initiative.
Aktau port sits at a crucial chokepoint for trade between Europe and Central Asia, but its aging infrastructure can’t keep up with growing cargo volumes. The Transcaspian Corridor offers an alternative route that bypasses Russia, which has become more important since the war in Ukraine disrupted traditional trade patterns. Companies shipping goods between Europe and Central Asian markets need reliable, efficient ports to make the route competitive.
The upgrades should double Aktau’s container handling capacity and cut processing time from four minutes per container to just 2.5 minutes. The port will get two fully dedicated container berths, each with separate trans-shipment lines. This is part of a bigger investment program to turn Aktau into the largest container terminal in the Caspian region by the end of 2026, capable of processing up to 240,000 twenty-foot equivalent units annually.
The port is owned by Kazakhstan’s national welfare fund Samruk-Kazyna and managed by Kazakhstan Railways. The improvements should help Kazakhstan capture more of the growing trade between Europe and Central Asia while providing shippers with better service and faster turnaround times.
EBRD has put over €10 billion into 340 projects across Kazakhstan, with most of the money going to private businesses rather than state-owned companies.
