During 2018, Russian Railways loaded 1.181 bn tons of cargo, up 2.6% year-on-year.
Coal loading grew 5.2% up to 342.8 mn tons. Oil and products, Russian Railways’ second most important commodity in terms of tonnage, increased slightly by 0.6% up to 215.5 mn tons.
Ferrous and manganese ore was up 5.7% to 106.4 mn tons, ferrous metals up 8.2% to 81.2 mn tons, chemical and mineral fertilizers up 3.8% to 53.9 mn tons, timber and logs up 5.9% to 41.9 mn tons, soda and chemicals up 1.1% up to 24 mn tons.
Grain loading amounted to 24.7 mn tons growing 25.9% year-on-year, however, the rate growth of rail traffic by rail is declining.
Ferrous metal scrap loading increased by 2.7% up to 14.8 mn tons, and coke by 0.1% up to 10.2 mn tons.
Other cargo categories loading volumes declined. Thus, construction cargo was down 6.8% to 115.1 mn tons, industrial and forming materials down 3.3% to 32.5 mn tons.
Non-ferrous ore and raw sulfur loading was down 1.1% to 18.4 mn tons, cement down 6.5% to 23.8 mn tons.
In December, Russian Railways loaded 107.3 mn tons of cargo, up 1.5% compared to November 2017 and down 1% compared to October 2018.