Goods Shipments To Russia Via Kazakhstan Have Slowed Sharply
- 1.11.2026, 18:11
Because of widespread inspections.
Shipments of goods to Russia via Kazakhstan have slowed significantly due to widespread inspections, according to importers. Buyers are still waiting for truckloads shipped in September, and trucking companies are warning that delays will only get worse and are suggesting that customers switch to other routes. Small importers and marketplace sellers are facing the biggest problems. They rely on “consolidated shipments”—consignments loaded onto a truck alongside shipments from other customers. According to business owners, both “gray” shipments and legitimate shipments processed in full compliance with regulations are being delayed, reports The Moscow Times.
“For the past two months, deliveries have been like a lottery—we received some shipments, but three shipments sent from China in September still haven’t reached us,” ” says a dealer in auto parts and accessories, “and at the end of October, we received a notice from our carrier that it was suspending the route through Kazakhstan altogether due to delays.”
“We’re facing another logistics crisis,” says a representative of a logistics company. Trucks carrying imported goods from China are stuck in traffic jams stretching for many kilometers at the border when entering and then when leaving Kazakhstan, his colleagues explain. As a result, while the route through Kazakhstan used to be the cheapest and fastest—taking about 20 days—since October, cargo owners complain that on average, 20 days can be lost just entering Kazakhstan and another 20 days leaving the country.
As explained by one freight forwarding company, since the summer, Kazakh customs officials have been conducting rigorous inspections of electronics, equipment, automotive goods, drones, brand-name goods, excise-taxable products, consolidated shipments, and consignments with unreasonably low prices at the borders with China and Kyrgyzstan. “They’re looking for contraband or discrepancies in the paperwork, since these categories often involve a lot of contraband—goods being transported under the guise of something else without paying duties or obtaining the necessary permits,” notes a company employee.
If shipments are bound for Russia or Belarus, Kazakhstani customs officials often request additional documents and order inspections with sampling, says another logistics specialist. According to him, delays at Kazakhstan’s borders can last up to three months, and microchips and machine tools are “almost always turned back.”
A huge flow of dual-use electronics—which are potentially subject to sanctions—was being shipped to Russia via Kyrgyzstan under false transit claims. Chinese manufacturers did not want to ship it directly to Russia. Now it’s also being “intercepted” in Kazakhstan, he explains. In October, it seems, Kazakhstan finally decided to shut down this kind of fake transit, the logistics expert believes.
Due to traffic jams, several transport companies stopped sending trucks from China through Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan altogether on October 28–30. Trucks were already crossing the borders more slowly than in August due to stricter inspections on both sides, but this problem was compounded by restrictions on traffic at the major “Nur-Zholy” border crossing, which used to handle about 500 trucks per day. Since mid-October, trucks from there have been rerouted to another border crossing, “Khorgos,” which can handle no more than 100 trucks per day; some vehicles have been waiting in line there for 20 days, one of the companies handling consolidated cargo shipments from China to Russia informed its clients on October 30. “Since any downtime means losses, as of this afternoon, the transport company is dispatching trucks only on direct routes,” it informed its clients. One of them said he understood the situation, since a truck’s downtime means a loss of $3,000–5,000 per month.
In addition, on October 30, the Ministry of Transport of Kazakhstan announced further tightening of controls over the movement of oversized and heavy vehicles on the country’s major transportation routes “as part of implementing the tasks set by the head of state.” In his address to the nation, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called the situation in the transportation industry absurd and stated that huge revenues are “slipping through our fingers.” Now, nearly all trucks heading to Russia and Belarus are also being inspected for overloading, which creates yet another opportunity for delays, complains an employee of a trucking company.
Logistics specialists advise clients to ship cargo via alternative routes—by road through Zabaikalsk and the Russian border crossings with Mongolia, or through seaports in the Far East. Some managed to reroute shipments from China to direct border crossings with Russia in October, but a great many trucks got stuck in traffic jams in Kazakhstan, says another logistics specialist.
In any case, if a truck travels directly to Russia, the trip costs 10–15% more. The route through Kazakhstan cost $12,000–13,000 in October. Another “downside” of the direct route is that it’s more difficult to transport many dual-use goods and cheap “gray market” goods for online marketplaces. Starting December 1, Russian customs officials will begin conducting comprehensive inspections of trucks instead of random checks, the logistics expert notes, so traffic will slow down even further.