In January-October 2017 Russian Railways JSC, the state owned operator of the Russian railway system, loaded 1,045.4 bn tons of cargo, 3% more than during the same period in 2016.
According to the company, coal loading increased 9.6% to 294.2 mn tons.
Oil and products, Russian Railways’ second largest cargo, grew just 0.1% year-on-year amounting to 194.4 mn tons.
Ferrous metal were up 2% to 59.7 mn tons, chemical and mineral fertilizers up 7.9% to 47.3 mn tons, timber and logs up 4.1% to 36.7 mn tons, soda and chemicals up 2.6% to 21.5 mn tons, ferrous metal scrap up 3.9% to 13.1 mn tons.
Grain loading grew 14.5% to make 17.1 mn tons. In October, grain traffic amounted to 2.5 mn tons, up 13.6% month-on-month and up 31.6% year-on-year.
The loading of industrial raw materials and molding materials increased 5.2% year-on-year to 30.6 mn tons.
The loading volumes of other cargo categories decreased. Construction materials were down 7.8% year-on-year to 113.5 mn tons, coke down 4.3% to 9.3 mn tons, ferrous and manganese ore down 0.2% to 91.3 mn tons, cement down 0.2% to 23.6 mn tons, and non-ferrous ore and sulfur down 5.1% to 17 mn tons.