Russian Railways have reported a 13.5% year-on-year increase in rail container traffic during January-August 2019. All in all, 3.2 mn TEU was carried during the period under report.
Domestic volumes were up 8.6% year-on-year to 1.34 mn TEU, export up 13.5% to 836.4 thousand TEU, and import up 26.1% to 696 thousand TEU. Transit grew by 11.1% up to 314 thousand TEU.
Laden container traffic amounted to 2.17 mn TEU, up 13.9% year-on-year.
Commodity-wise, containerized timber and woodwork grew the most, up 41.4% year-on-year to 342 thousand TEU. Chemicals and soda were up 11.7% to 359 thousand TEU, consumer goods up 11.1% to 196 thousand TEU.
Containerized hardware increased by 8.8% up to 184.1 thousand TEU, vehicles by 13.2% up to 157.3 thousand TEU, machinery, equipment and engines by 6.9% up to 147 thousand TEU.
Ferrous metals grew by 14% up to 90.6 thousand TEU, non-ferrous metals by 4.9% up to 75.5 thousand TEU, ‘other’ and LCL cargo by 23.6% up to 70.5 thousand tons, construction cargo by 13.2% up to 74.8 thousand TEU.
Containerized oil products were up 10.1% to 57.7 thousand TEU.
Paper was down 1.3% to 204.3 thousand TEU, and chemical and mineral fertilizers declined by 8.4% down to 27 thousand TEU.
In August, overall containerized traffic in the Russian Railways’ network amounted to 385.7 thousand TEU, up 2.5% year-on-year and down 9.1% month-on-month.