In 2019, Russian Railways expect to load 1.3 bn tons of cargo, up 20 mn tons, or 1.5% year-on-year.
According to Yevgeny Ditrikh, RF minister of transport, this is the forecast made by the RF Ministry of economic development.
Domestic traffic is expected to grow by 0.5%, while export traffic is to demonstrate a 3.2% increase.
More than half of the growth is to be due to the increasing volumes of coal. Other commodities expected to grow are ore, mineral fertilizers and construction materials.
In 2018, Russian Railways are expected to load 1.289 bn tons, up 2.2% compared to the result achieved in 2017.
Coal is to grow by 5%, ferrous metals by 8.2% and grains by 200%.
Earnings from rail transportation are forecasted to increase by 196.7%, EBITDA by 32.6% and net profit up 1.8-fold in 2019-2020, Y.Ditrikh said.