During January-November 2017 Russian Railways loaded 1.15 bn tons of cargo, up 3% year-on-year.
The loading of coal, which accounts for about one third of the total volume, grew 9% to 325.9 mn tons.
Russian Railways’ second largest cargo flow in terms of volume, oil and products, was slightly down 0.1% to 214.2 mn tons.
Ferrous and manganese ore was up 0.2% to 100.7 mn tons, ferrous metals up 1.8% to 65.8 mn tons, chemical and mineral fertilizers up 7% to 51.9 mn tons, timber and logs up 2.8% to 39.6 mn tons, soda and chemicals up 2% to 23.8 mn tons, ferrous metal scrap up 4.5% to 14.4 mn tons.
Grain loading grew 15.7% to 19.6 mn tons. Industrial and forming materials flow increased 4% to 33.6 mn tons. Cement volumes grew for the first time since March, by 0.2% to 25.4 mn tons.
In other cargo segments loading volume declined. Construction cargo, which is Russian Railways’ third largest cargo flow, was down 6.8% to 123.5 mn tons. Coke loading decreased 4.6% to 10.2 mn tons, non-ferrous ore and raw sulfur was down 4.5% to 18.6 mn tons.
In November, Russian Railways loaded 105.7 mn tons of cargo, up 3.5% year-on-year and down 2.2% month-on-month.
Cargo throughput in November 2017 made 210.6 bn ton/km, up 5.7% year-on-year. During the 11 months of the year cargo throughput increased 6.5% year-on-year to 2272.1 bn ton/km.