During January-August 2018, Russian Railways loaded 857.8 mn tons of cargo, up 2.9% year-on-year.
Coal loading grew 5.4% up to 247 mn tons. Oil and products, Russian Railways’ second most important commodity in terms of tonnage, was stable at 156.7 mn tons.
Ferrous and manganese ore was up 5.4% to 77.3 mn tons, ferrous metals up 11.6% to 46.1 mn tons, chemical and mineral fertilizers up 4.1% to 39.5 mn tons, timber and logs up 3.8% to 31.2 mn tons.
Grain loading amounted to 17.9 mn tons surging 44.1% year-on-year. Chemicals and soda volume grew 2.3% up to 17.7 mn tons. Ferrous metal scrap loading was up 1.2% making 10 mn tons.
Other cargo categories loading volumes declined. Thus, construction cargo was down 5.6% to 85.2 mn tons, coke down 3.2% to 7.3 mn tons.
Industrial and forming materials were down 2.5% to 23.8 mn tons, non-ferrous ore and raw sulfur down 2% to 13.5 mn tons, and cement down to 6.8% to 17.2 mn tons.
In August, Russian Railways loaded 108.4 mn tons of cargo, up 2% compared to August 2017 and 1.2% above the July 2018 result.
