Operating a huge cargo lifter, Zhandos Nurmagambetov was stacking containers onto a train before it headed across the steppe of Kazakhstan on a new railway route vital for China-Europe trade.
Central Asia is in the midst of a logistics boom, as Beijing invests heavily in the New Silk Road — a vast overland transport network linking China to Europe that can help bypass Russia and shorten freight routes.
On Kazakhstan's border with China, the once-sleepy small town of Dostyk, whose name translates as "friendship" has become a surprisingly vital hub in global trade.
"We receive and ship goods mainly from Europe, Asia and Russia," Nurmagambetov told AFP, as he moved 20-ton containers using the industrial forklift.
"A 39-car train is about 900 meters long. We carry out this operation in 40 minutes," Nurmagambetov said.
On the side of the metal boxes, the names of major Chinese logistics hubs — Xi'an and Zhengzhou — reveal the thousands of kilometres the goods have already travelld. Europe is another 4,000-plus kilometers away.
Located in the Dzungarian gate, a mountain pass that connects Kazakhstan to China's Xinjiang region, Dostyk is near the "continental pole of inaccessibility" — the place on Earth furthest from the ocean, which is around 2,500 kilometers away.
Despite its geographic isolation, strong winds and frequent dust storms, Dostyk is the largest freight station in the country and a "hub for export and import trade," according to Zhanat Utegulov of Kazakhstan Railways.
Container trains going through Dostyk and Alashankou, the Chinese city on the other side of the border, have two options to reach Europe: The traditional route via Russia, or the new Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR) through Central Asia.
Europe is backing the second, which bypasses Russia and has seen "increased interest since the Russian invasion of Ukraine," the World Bank said in a report.
For landlocked Kazakhstan, an enormous country spanning almost 3,000 kilometers from east to west, the new route presents a huge economic opportunity.
Some 85 percent of all rail cargo between China and Europe passes through Kazakhstan, and President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has said he wants the country to be "a golden bridge between China and Europe."
The initiative demonstrates the strategic importance of Central Asia, where Europe and the U.S. also compete for influence.
Development of the route, which can cut delivery times and also avoids the Suez Canal, has been rapid.
Though Kazakhstan and China share a 1,800-kilometer border, the first container trains to Europe only launched in 2013, said railway official Utegulov.
Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine and imposition of Western sanctions were a major boost for the TITR.
Trade volume jumped more than six-fold between 2021 and 2024, according to official Kazakh data.
At Dostyk, the recent opening of a double track could increase freight loads five-fold — from 12 to 60 daily train pairs with the Chinese side, Kazakhstan says.
On a platform currently under construction, a giant steel plate is set to bear the slogan "One Belt, One Road", China's official name for the New Silk Road, a favored initiative of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
