During January-October 2018, Russian Railways loaded 1.073 bn tons of cargo, up 2.7% year-on-year.
Coal loading grew 5.5% up to 310.1 mn tons. Oil and products, Russian Railways’ second most important commodity in terms of tonnage, increased slightly by 0.6% up to 195.6 mn tons.
Ferrous and manganese ore was up 5.5% to 96.3 mn tons, ferrous metals up 8.8% to 65 mn tons, chemical and mineral fertilizers up 3.5% to 48.9 mn tons, timber and logs up 4.6% to 38.3 mn tons, soda and chemicals up 1.4% up to 21.9 mn tons.
Grain loading amounted to 22.3 mn tons surging 30.8% year-on-year, however, the rate growth of rail traffic by rail is declining.
Ferrous metal scrap loading increased 1.7% up to 13.3 mn tons.
Other cargo categories loading volumes declined. Thus, construction cargo was down 6.6% to 106 mn tons, industrial and forming materials down 3.4% to 29.6 mn tons.
Non-ferrous ore and raw sulfur loading was down 0.5% to 16.9 mn tons, cement down to 6.7% to 22 mn tons, and coke down 1.4% to 9.2 mn tons.
In October, Russian Railways loaded 108.4 mn tons of cargo, up 0.3% compared to October 2017 and up 3.7% compared to September 2018.