Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping Company (ASCO) transported 28,178 trucks and vehicles on its Caspian Sea ferries in the first eight months of 2026, a 10 per cent increase over the same period last year.
The company said the figure compared with 25,641 units carried in January–August 2025.
The weight of vehicles transported rose 13 per cent year on year to 728,536 tonnes, up from 643,623 tonnes. Transit vehicle transport accounted for 678,760 tonnes, which ASCO said was nine per cent higher than in the prior-year period.
The figures follow a July update in which ASCO reported that freight truck transport by its ferries totalled 515,033 tonnes in the first half of 2026, up 6 per cent from 486,926 tonnes a year earlier. June was the strongest month of that period at 116,365 tonnes.
ASCO's freight-oriented Ro-Pax ferries, used mainly by truck drivers travelling with their trailers, operate from Alat near Baku to Turkmenbashi in Turkmenistan and to Kuryk in Kazakhstan.
The routes serve as cross-Caspian links within the Trans-Caspian transport corridor, also known as the middle corridor.
At Kuryk, a Chinese firm is set to build a multimodal hub with first-phase annual handling capacity expected to reach 15 million tonnes.
ASCO's fleet includes the Ro-Pax ferry Zarifa Aliyeva, which was designed to carry up to 50 lorries, 56 rail cars and 100 passengers.