Overland Transport to Central Asia: Ports Fully Open, Yet Freight Rates Keep Rising

This report summarizes the current state of road freight from China to Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan — where capacity is available, where it is not, and what it means for freight rates in the near term.

I. Current Operation of Ports in China

Major land ports serving Central Asia are all open and clearing cargo efficiently.

Irkeshtam Port: China's first land port facing Kyrgyzstan, with 24-hour customs clearance for cargo. Annual throughput is around 300,000 cargo vehicles, with an average of more than 1,100 trucks inspected and released per day and a single-day peak of 1,558.

Karasu Port (China–Tajikistan port): Customs hours have been extended — the outbound lane by 1–1.5 hours and the inbound lane by roughly 2 hours. Trucks are generally inspected and released on arrival, with an average clearance time of just 4 minutes; the dedicated lane can release up to 200 trucks per day.

Khorgos Port: Around 2,200 vehicles pass through daily in both directions, and passenger flow exceeds 4,200 people per day during holidays.

All ports are clearing smoothly. The bottleneck is not at the Chinese border.

II. Key Bottleneck: the Osh Transshipment Terminal, Kyrgyzstan

The main congestion point sits on the China–Kyrgyzstan–Uzbekistan corridor, at the transshipment terminal in Osh, Kyrgyzstan.

Road cargo from southern Xinjiang and rail cargo converge at this terminal and share the same infrastructure.

The terminal is small and has too few flat wagons. New cargo can be received only after empty flat wagons return.

Large numbers of trucks queue around Osh waiting for flat wagons and for loading and unloading.

After delivering into Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, empty trucks struggle to return to China.

This poor backflow of empty trucks is what directly causes the shortage of truck capacity at Chinese ports.

Congestion therefore does not occur at China's border — the constraint lies in the limited transshipment and reloading capacity of the Osh terminal.

III. Market Conclusion and Freight Rate Forecast

A common assumption is that once ports reopen, truck supply will rise and freight rates will fall. The data does not support it.

Ports are only customs gates. Truck availability and freight pricing are determined further down the chain — by overseas transshipment terminals, cargo reloading, and the backflow of empty trucks.

On the China–Kyrgyzstan–Uzbekistan route specifically:

• Cargo volumes keep growing
• Reloading capacity at overseas terminals is limited
• The backflow of empty trucks is blocked

Truck supply therefore remains tight, and freight rates are unlikely to fall significantly in the short term.

What This Means for Buyers

• Don't wait for rates to drop. The constraint is structural — reloading capacity and empty-truck backflow — and opening ports alone does not remove it. Buyers with shipments planned for the coming months should plan on current rate levels.
• Lock rates early. In a tight market, booking later usually means paying more, not less.
• Look past the Chinese border when choosing a route. A smoothly running Chinese port says little about the overseas leg. Route selection should be judged on the transshipment and reloading segment.
• Watch for surcharges in transit. Congested corridors are where unexpected extra charges appear.

IV. Follow-up

We will publish a further note covering transport channel selection, rate-locking arrangements, and how to avoid unexpected surcharges in transit.

This report reflects market conditions at the time of writing and is provided for reference. Freight rates and port operations change frequently — contact us for the current situation on your route.