During January-February 2018, Russian Railways loaded 203.3 mn tons of cargo, up 3.7% year-on-year.
Coal was up 1.1% to 60.8 mn tons. Construction cargo up 9.8 to 18.2 mn tons, ferrous and manganese ore up 4% to 17.7 mn tons, ferrous metals up 10.3% to 12.6 mn tons, chemical and mineral fertilizers up 6.4% to 9.97 mn tons, timber and logs up 5.5% to 7.1 mn tons.
Industrial and forming materials loading increased 16.3% to 5.3 mn tons. Chemicals and soda volume grew slightly 0.8% to 4.5 mn tons. Grain loading also amounted to 4.5 mn tons surging 41.5% year-on-year. Cement loading was up 7.3% to 2.7 mn tons.
Other cargo categories demonstrated a decline. Oil and products, Russian Railways’ second most important cargo in terms of tonnage, were down 2.6% to 39.5 mn tons. Non-ferrous ore and raw sulfur decreased 1.2% to 3.1 mn tons, ferrous metals scrap dropped 16.6% to 1.5 mn tons.
Coke loading made 1.78 mn tons, 1.2% below the previous year’s result.
In February, Russian Railways loaded 99.9 mn tons of cargo, up 4% compared for February 2017, but 3.5% below the January 2018 result.