Russian Railways have reported a 16.1% year-on-year increase in rail container traffic during January-September 2020. All in all, more than 4.2 mn TEU was carried during the period under report.
Domestic container traffic grew by 12.8% up to 1.7 mn TEU, export was up 14.7% to some 1.1 mn TEU, import up 13.9% to 888 thousand TEU, and transit up 35.3% to 558 thousand TEU.
Laden container traffic made about 2.9 mn TEU, up 17.2% year-on-year.
Commodity-wise, containerized fruit, vegetables and potatoes grew the most, up 57.1% to 5.5 thousand TEU. Other foodstuffs were up 37.1% to 116.6 thousand TEU, ferrous metals up 44.9% to 148.3 thousand TEU, non-ferrous ore and raw sulphur up 36.1% to 19.1 thousand TEU.
Chemicals and soda transportation grew by 27.3% year-on-year up to 51.6 thousand TEU, timber and woodwork by 7.2% up to 412.4 thousand TEU, paper by 14.2% up to 263.3 thousand TEU.
Consumer goods increased by 26.1% up to 281.7 thousand TEU, hardware by 15.3% up to 239.6 thousand TEU, machinery, equipment and engines by 26.8% to 210.2 thousand TEU, non-ferrous metals by 25.5% up to 106.7 thousand TEU, construction cargo by 11.8% to 95.3 thousand TEU.
Containerized chemical and mineral fertilizers were up 5.2% to 31.2 thousand TEU, other and LCL cargo up 17.9% to 94.8 thousand TEU.
Containerized grain was up 20% to 6.2 thousand TEU, fish up 0.7% to 16.1 thousand TEU, salt up 10.7% to 1.1 thousand TEU, sugar up 25.3% to 2.8 thousand TEU, meal and flour up 16.2% to 7.8 thousand TEU.
Vehicles and parts were down 5.8% to 166.5 thousand TEU, oil and products down 4.9% to 61.5 thousand TEU, and metal structures down 3.5% to 12 thousand TEU.