During January-July 2018, Russian Railways loaded 749.9 mn tons of cargo, up 3% year-on-year.
Coal loading grew 4.9% up to 216.1 mn tons. Oil and products, Russian Railways’ second most important commodity in terms of tonnage, was stable at 137.4 mn tons.
Ferrous and manganese ore was up 5.1% to 67.1 mn tons, ferrous metals up 11.6% to 46.1 mn tons, chemical and mineral fertilizers up 4.6% to 34.7 mn tons, timber and logs up 3.2% to 27.3 mn tons.
Grain loading amounted to 15.9 mn tons surging 51.8% year-on-year. Chemicals and soda volume grew 2.2% up to 15.5 mn tons.
Other cargo categories loading volumes declined. Thus, construction cargo was down 4.2% to 74.4 mn tons, coke down 3.2% to 6.3 mn tons, ferrous metal scrap down 0.4% to 8.4 mn tons.
Cement loading declined 5.5% down to 14.6 mn tons, industrial and forming materials were down 3.6% to 20.7 mn tons, and non-ferrous ore and raw sulfur down 2.3% to 11.7 mn tons.
In June, Russian Railways loaded 107.6 mn tons of cargo, up 1% compared to June 2017 and 0.7% above the July 2018 result.