During January 2019, Russian Railways loaded 105.4 mn tons of cargo, up 1.6% year-on-year, but 3.2% below the result of December 2018.
Compared to December 2018, the loading of almost all commodities declined, the exclusion being coal, non-ferrous metals and raw sulphur.
Compared to January, coal loading grew 5.2% up to 32.9 mn tons. Oil and products, Russian Railways’ second most important commodity in terms of tonnage, declined slightly by 0.1% down to 20.7 mn tons.
Ferrous and manganese ore was up 7.5% to 9.9 mn tons, chemical and mineral fertilizers up 2.1% to 5.3 mn tons, timber and logs up 6% to 3.6 mn tons, ferrous metals up 0.1% to 6.6 mn tons, and coal and coke up 9.1% to 0.986 mn tons.
Other commodities loading decreased. Thus, construction cargo was down 5.1% to 8.3 mn tons, industrial and forming materials down 11.1% to 2.5 mn tons, ferrous metal scrap down 10.5% to 0.590 mn tons.
Cement loading declined by 7.5% down to 1.1 mn tons, non-ferrous ore and raw sulfur by 4.4% down to 1.5 mn tons, and grain by 8.5% down 8.5% down to 1.99 mn tons.