Alakol Port (export port)

Project Essence and Problem Addressed

The project establishes an industrial “dry export port” logistics hub on the Kazakhstan–China border (Zhalanashkol station, 40 km from Alashankou).

Core value: solving fundamental bottlenecks:
• Different railway gauges (Kazakhstan: 1520 mm, China: 1435 mm).
• Lengthy and complicated process of obtaining an export railway plan, as priority is given to large corporations, state-owned companies, and Russian/European transit trains. Export plans are collected once a week, submitted to Beijing, and approval takes another week.

This creates severe bottlenecks at Dostyk and Khorgos stations, where cargo may be delayed for months.

Currently, land trade between China and Eurasia (Central Asia, Europe, Russia) flows through just two crossings:
• Dostyk: focused on industrial bulk cargo (ore, concentrates, petroleum products). Overloaded.
• Khorgos: focused on containerized consumer goods. Overloaded.

Alakol Port’s multimodal solution:
• Bypasses queues for wagon transshipment/bogie change.
• Eliminates the need for an export railway plan (only customs clearance is required for trucks).
• Prevents wagon downtime in case of border closures (cargo can be stored on-site).
• Accelerates procedures by hosting a customs post at the port (border checkpoint remains only for migration control).

Market Potential and Rationale

While 95% of China’s trade is seaborne, the remaining 5% is 100% of the strategic land corridor to Eurasia. This segment, already worth tens of billions of dollars, is growing rapidly.

Alakol Port is not just a warehouse — it is critical infrastructure that solves the corridor’s bottleneck and captures part of the rising bulk cargo flows:
• Explosive demand growth: China–Europe rail traffic rose from nearly zero in 2011 to 1.5M containers in 2023.
• Kazakhstan’s exports to China: +35% in 2022 ($13B), with bulk cargo up 31% (6.7M tons).
• Export structure: 83% iron ore, plus agriculture (flax, sunflower seeds), fertilizers, sulfur.
• Geopolitics: Sanctions on Russia redirected flows via Kazakhstan. 85% of China–Europe land logistics now runs through Kazakhstan.
• Local demand: 60–70% of cargo remains in Xinjiang, fueling major industrial plants (e.g., ~1M tons of coal annually).

Target cargoes:
• Bulk: iron ore, copper ore/concentrate, coal.
• Chemicals: sulfur, fertilizers, industrial chemicals.
• Agriculture: grains, oils, bran, corn, soy.
• Containers.

Financial Indicators (Deloitte)
• Investment: $120.8M
• NPV: $60.3M
• IRR: 22.8%
• Payback period: 7.37 years (model uses conservative assumptions) we 
• Revenue (stabilized): ~$112M/year
• EBITDA (stabilized): ~$73M/year (margin ~65%)
• Business valuation by Year 5: $350–400M

Government Support and Incentives

The project has priority investment status (“Kazakhstan Invest”).
• Tax incentives: 0% CIT & land tax for 10 years, 0% property tax for 8 years.
• Customs incentives: 0% import duties on equipment/raw materials (5 years).
• Land allocation: ownership transfer at cost 9 months post-commissioning.
• Legislative stability: guaranteed for 25 years.

Team and Stakeholders
• Initiator: SG Solutions LLP.
• Anchor tenants: Ongoing negotiations with Russia’s EuroChem (fertilizers) and Kazakhstan’s Advaita (copper, copper concentrate).
• Advisors: Deloitte (financial analysis), industry experts.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is more than an investment — it is ownership of a critical Silk Road gateway.

You are not investing in a warehouse — you are building the new standard of industrial logistics for Eurasia.

Let us open the new path forward, together.

Project stage: business plan by Deloitte