UrBC, Magnitogorsk, August 8, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) shipped its pilot batch of metal goods to Turkey via Magnitogorsk-Baku-Tbilisi-Kars, the company’s Information & PR Department reports.

MMK is now collaborating with Azerbaijan’s freight forwarder ADY Express to work through the logistics of shipping up to 250,000,000 kg of metal goods a year via this new route. This would amount to around a third of Turkey-based MMK Metalurji’s hot-rolled metal goods needs.

So far, four containers (total weight: 120,000 kg) have been delivered onto MMK’s daughter enterprise in Turkey. It took the railcars filled with metal goods seventeen days to cover the 5,000-km distance.

Up till now, all goods only got shipped to MMK Metalurji by sea, with a starting point at a seaport in Novorossiysk; it took over thirty days to make it through the 6,000+ km of water.

Diversifying the company’s logistics routes means MMK can reduce the risks related to quarantine regulations and poor weather conditions in Novorossiysk ports. A drop in the number of transshipping points also means there will be less mechanical damage to goods, as well as intact product quality.