The Caspian Sea is Busy Between Russia and Iran
The US naval blockade of Iran's southern ports appears to be nearly 100 percent effective, cutting goods flows through Bandar Abbas and other Gulf and southern coast ports that used to handle 80 percent of Iran's trade, while air traffic to the outside world has also largely been cut. With road crossings from Iraq, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia facing capacity problems, including as many as 1,800 trucks queuing at the Norduz crossing into Armenia, the text identifies two remaining options for heavy cargo: rail connections through Turkmenistan and Caspian Sea shipping, principally to Russia. Iranian Caspian ports previously handled about 10 percent of Iran's trade, the governor of Gilan said volumes rose 50 percent from March to August, and ship tracking shows about eight vessels a day moving between Astrakhan and Makhachkala and Bandar-e Anzali and Amirabad.
Why it matters: It shows how blockade and sanctions pressure push trade onto longer, lower-capacity corridors, the central dynamic of the trade-and-logistics theme.