During January-February 2023, Russian Railways loaded 196.4 mn tons of cargo, 2.4% below the liftings of the first two months of 2022.
Practically all commodity categories demonstrated a negative trend, the only exception being construction materials, up 18.6% to 19.4 thousand tons, and grain, up 30.9% to 4.8 mn tons.
Coal loading, which is Russian Railways’ top commodity, decreased by 1.2% year-on-year down to 59.5 mn tons.
Oil and products, Russian Railways’ second most important cargo, made 35.6 mn tons, down 4.3% year-on-year. Ferrous and manganese ore loading declined by 1.9% down to 18.5 mn tons.
Ferrous metals were down 11% to 10.5 mn tons, chemical and mineral fertilizers down 6.5% to 10 mn tons, timber and logs down 25.2% to 4.3 mn tons, industrial and forming materials down 23.9% to 4 mn tons, chemicals and soda down 14.4% to 3.6 mn tons, cement down 9.4% to 2.5 mn tons, ferrous metal scrap down 14.4% to 1.4 mn tons.
Coke declined by 8.3% to 1.8 mn tons, non-ferrous ore and raw sulphur by 0.5% to 2.8 mn tons.
Rail cargo throughput during January-February made 440.7 bn tons/km, up 3.5% year-on-year.
In February, Russian Railways loaded 97.2 mn tons of cargo, up 0.2% year-on-year.
Cargo throughput in February amounted to 212.1 bn tons/km, up 5.6% year-on-year.
Photo: Russian Railways