RZD expects freight loading to fall 5% in July and for year

MOSCOW. July 25 (Interfax) - Russian Railways (RZD) expects freight loading to drop by 5% in July, as well as for 2025 overall, the company's deputy CEO, Mikhail Glazkov told reporters.

"We ended June with a drop of 9.2% compared to last year. In July we're heading toward a 5% decrease from last year's level," he said.

The decline has slowed compared to June thanks to intensive work with the country's regions and freight shippers, as well as thanks to the acquisition of additional freight, including on limited routes, Glazkov said.

"In May, RZD approved an action plan that calls for attracting additional freight loading in the amount of 5.7 million tonnes by the end of the year," he said.

He said orders that RZD is seeing for August exceed last year's level. "Right now we're planning [freight loading for] August and, based on requests for shipment, we again have four routes that are limited. The eastern one as usual, northwestern, southwestern and border crossings in the southern part of the country, largely with Kazakhstan. On all four routes, declarations of freight for shipment are higher than last year and higher than the infrastructure capabilities," Glazkov said.

However, in May, June and July RZD has seen up to 15% nondelivery of freight on already agreed orders, he said. "And while in May-June this was mainly in the western direction, meaning to the ports of the October and North Caucasus railways, in July we're already seeing nondelivery of freight on the eastern route," Glazkov said.

He said this is due to the declining solvency of both freight shippers and receivers. "There are cases where we have loaded cars, loaded trains under GU-12 [order forms], but they're not being dispatched by the freight sender due to non-payment for this product by the freight receiver," Glazkov said. The second reason for nondelivery of freight is the general decline in loading, largely on domestic routes.

Speaking about the forecast for freight loading for all of 2025, Glazkov said that "taking into account the measures that we are implementing today, we plan to stay at a level of minus 5%, and as far as possible reduce this lag to a minimum."