Russian Railways have reported a 14.7% year-on-year increase in rail container traffic during January-June 2019. All in all, 2.38 mn TEU was carried during the period under report.
Domestic volumes were up 10% year-on-year to 987.3 thousand TEU, export up 12.8% to 622.3 thousand TEU, and import up 25.4% to 502.6 thousand TEU. Transit grew by 18.7% up to 264 thousand TEU.
Laden container traffic amounted to 1.59 mn TEU, up 13.9% year-on-year.
Commodity-wise, containerized timber and woodwork grew the most, up 45.4% year-on-year to 251 thousand TEU. ‘Other’ commodities and LCL increased by 24.8% up to 50 thousand TEU.
Chemicals and soda were up 11.1% to 262.7 thousand TEU, hardware up 9.4% to 135.3 thousand TEU, consumer goods up 12.3% to 133.5 thousand TEU, vehicles up 9.5% to 116.3 thousand TEU, machinery, equipment and engines up 6% to 105.5 thousand TEU.
Containerized ferrous metals grew by 13% up to 65.9 thousand TEU, non-ferrous metals up 2.9% to 54.9 thousand TEU, construction cargo up 15.9% to 52.7 thousand TEU, oil products up 8.3% to 42 thousand TEU.
Paper was down 0.7% to 153.4 thousand TEU, and chemical and mineral fertilizers declined by 17.9% down to 20.5 thousand TEU.
In June, overall containerized traffic in the Russian Railways’ network amounted to 404.8 thousand TEU, up 9.1% year-on-year and up 0.7% month-on-month.