Russian Railways have reported a 13.5% year-on-year increase in rail container traffic during January-May 2020. All in all, 2.2 mn TEU was carried during the period under report.
Domestic container traffic grew by 12.1% up to 917.4 thousand TEU, export was up 14.2% to 597.1 thosand TEU, import up 12.5% to 461.9 thousand TEU, and transit up 19% to 263.1 thousand TEU.
Laden container traffic made 1.5 mn TEU, up 13.6% year-on-year.
Commodity-wise, containerized fruit, vegetables and potatoes grew the most, up 71.8% to 3.6 thousand TEU. Ferrous metals were up 47.2% up to 79.4 thousand TEU, non-ferrous ore and raw sulphur up 46.6% to 10 thousand TEU.
Chemicals and soda transportation grew by 32.9% year-on-year to 224.5 thousand TEU, timber and woodwork by 3.8% up to 217.5 thousand TEU, paper by 11.3% to 147.6 thousand TEU.
Consumer goods increased by 13.9% up to 123.7 thousand TEU, hardware by 2.6% up to 113.9 thousand TEU, machinery, equipment and engines by 22.7% to 103.5 thousand TEU, non-ferrous metals by 22.5% up to 55.7 thousand TEU, construction cargo by 4.9% to 44.3 thousand TEU.
Containerized oil and products were up 5.4% to 36.7 thousand TEU, other and LCL up 11.1% to 45.5 thousand TEU.
Containerized food products continue demonstrating an upward trend. Thus, grain was up 7.8% to 3.7 thousand TEU, flour and ground cereals up 30.9% to 4.5 thousand TEU, sugar up 0.1% to 1.1 thousand TEU, salt up 30.9% to 0.64 thousand TEU, other food products up 34.3% to 58.7 thousand TEU.
On the other hand, vehicles and parts were down 10.7% to 85.4 thousand TEU, chemical and mineral fertilizers down 4% to 17 thousand TEU, metal structures down 2.5% to to 5.7 thousand TEU, and fish down 1.8% to 8.7 thousand TEU.
In May, laden container traffic in the Russian Railways’ network amounted to some 340 thousand TEU, up 12.8% month-on-month.