ABAD MMC OFFERS HIGH-QUALITY SERVICE TO CUSTOMERS

 

Caspian Energy (CE): Mr. Heydarov, how would you evaluate the current positions of the company in the local and international logistics markets?

Natig Heydarov, General Director, ABAD MMC: Our primary activity concerns cargo transportation  both inside the country and across the globe. We transport freights by rail, cars and air and thus ensure all types of cargo transportation.

Since the very establishment of the company we have worked in the Azerbaijan market, whereas now we are going to extend our activity to the international arena. On the whole, for us the international market starts from our close neighbours. At the moment we are working with Turkmenistan, Georgia, Ukraine and Russia.

We cooperate with Russian companies and have new contracts on transportation of pipes from Ukraine through Azerbaijan to Turkmenistan. This is a government order of Turkmenistan and Ukraine. We perform a transit function, meet freights at the frontier of Azerbaijan and transport them to Turkmenistan. At the same time, we commenced transporting gypsum from Azerbaijan to Georgia.

We mainly deal with dry cargoes and oil products. Thus, oil products prevail inside the republic, whereas outside the country we transport dry cargoes, which are either delivered to Azerbaijan or exported from the country.

As the oil sector is state-run and the state does not have its own motor transport, the structures our company mainly cooperates with are such companies as SOCAR, Azerbaijan State Railroad, and Caspian Sea Shipping Company. We are known in the local delivery & transportation market for our mobile operation and exclusive opportunity to deliver goods to hard-to-reach places.

In addition, we implement work to obtain direct contracts. We plan to deal with oil transportation in the international arena and thus currently do our best to establish ties with railroads of Russia, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.

 

CE: Why should customers use namely your services? What steps are taken to withstand competition with largest logistic companies?

Natig Heydarov: We guess we have already established a permanent client base. But the core reason is the precise implementation of work. We arrange various trainings for our employees in London, Moscow, and Kazakhstan. These trainings mainly concern transportation of oil products.

As to competition, I would say we do our best to combine simultaneously acceptable prices on goods traffic and high-grade service. Usually a high price implies high quality. However, it is necessary to boost competitive prices. Very often when we take part in tenders, our business rivals are surprised at our prices, especially in the field of road transport. We offer a better price. Thus, the larger the scope of traffic is, the better price we may propose.

Today largest companies-customers need not only high-quality and mobile work but also certain standards. We have already entered the lists of some largest companies and at the moment implement work so as to be included in the lists of such companies as BP and Agip/Saipem.

The more we are known, the higher requirements we are imposed. Thus, we need to arrange our work on the top level.

 

CE: What are the perspectives of the company's development against the background of the growing transit role of Azerbaijan?

Natig Heydarov: As to dry cargo transportation from China, the shuttle service does prevail in this segment. As to oil products, Chinese entrepreneurs do not work in this region as they mainly operate in Russia and Kazakhstan. Now freights from China and UAE are transited through Azerbaijan mainly to Ukraine and Georgia. However, the construction of a terminal in Georgia is underway, so direct air carriage to this country will be established as soon as the construction competes.

At the same time, the implementation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad project (BTK) is going to be started soon. This is one more incredible opportunity for us to implement the transit resource. There are some companies which do not enter our region due to the lack of such a route. In other words, at the moment reloading of goods makes transportation economically inexpedient, whereas the implementation of the BTK railroad enables to set stable prices and offer high-quality service to a customer, who will not worry about his freight. On the whole, we keep on progressing and reaching new heights. We get new orders and offer competitive prices.

 

CE: What steps does the company take to improve the image?

Natig Heydarov: We transport freights across Azerbaijan. In the field of transport it is very prestigious to deliver cargoes to final point of destination. We offer high-quality service to our clients. As a result, our customer does not take care how to take, deliver and give back the freight. At the moment we view the possibilities to use our technique to implement freight handling operations inside the country. In Ganja we have rented the area at the railway station where we reload and wagon freights. We possess motor vehicle to implement transportation inside the country. However, there is no need to use it in the international market as various international agents have transport vehicles and good tariffs on auto, air and rail transport. In addition, there are numerous agent companies in Europe and we cooperate with them. Indeed, it is economically inexpedient to purchase new transport vehicle which will be forbidden in Europe in a year.

 

CE: What can you offer to a client who intends to transit his goods via Azerbaijan?

Natig Heydarov: Any client is welcome to use our service. We are registered at a number of transport sites, as a client searches for a region of Azerbaijan and contacts us by sending a request. We have worked out the site of ABAD MMC, which simplified the work of our customers and saves their time. All necessary information is placed at this site. Before June 10 we plan to move to a new more roomy office, which will enable us to extend the personnel and expand the geography of our operation. Now it is important to enhance the scope of works and preserve the quality of performed works.