Russian Railways have reported a 13.2% increase in rail container traffic during January-August 2018. All in all, 2.84 mn TEU was carried.
Domestic volumes were up 4.4% year-on-year to 1.23 mn TEU, export up 18.6% to 737 thousand TEU, and import up 19.8% to 552 thousand TEU.
Transit grew the most, by 28.8% up to 326 thousand TEU.
Loaded container traffic amounted to 1.91 TEU during January-August, increasing 13.1% year-on-year.
Containerized chemicals and soda were up 9.4% to 321.4 thousand TEU, paper up 9% to 207 thousand TEU, timber up 37.4% to 241.5 thousand TEU, industrial goods up 8.8% to 176.3 thousand TEU.
Hardware volumes increased 13.5% up to 169.2 thousand TEU, cars 26.5% up to 139 thousand TEU, machinery, equipment and engines 21.4% up to 137.5 thousand TEU.
Ferrous metals grew 14.9% up to 79.5 thousand TEU, construction cargo 12.6% up to 66 thousand TEU.
Chemical and mineral fertilizers were down 16.2% to 29.3 thousand TEU, non-ferrous metals down 2.2% to 72 thousand TEU.
In August, Russian Railways carried 395.5 thousand TEU, up 17.2% year-on-year, including 260 thousand TEU of laden containers.