Freight loading on Russian railways up 1.6% in July - RZD
MOSCOW. Aug 1 (Interfax) - Freight loading on Russia's railways totaled 104.4 million tonnes in July 2016, 1.6% more than in the same month last year, Russian Railways (RZD) reported, citing provisional data that could be revised.
An Interfax source said previously that RZD's plan of operations assumed a 1.5% increase in loading in July, while RZD Vice President Salman Babaev said the company expected loading to increase 2% in the month.
Freight turnover rose 0.5% year-on-year to 197.6 billion tonne-km or, including empty runs, edged down 0.1% to 251.6 billion tonne-km.
For January-July 2016 as a whole, cargo loading rose to 703.9 million tonnes, 1.8% more than in 7M 2015.
Loading grew 3.8% year-on-year to 187.7 million tonnes of coal, 1.5% to 6.6 million tonnes of coke, 1.4% to 63.9 million tonnes of iron and manganese ore, 2.7% to 30.6 million tonnes of chemical and mineral fertilizers, 7.6% to 25.5 million tonnes of forest products, 6.9% to 9.5 million tonnes of grain, 19% to 83.4 million tonnes of construction materials, 4.3% to 12.3 million tonnes of nonferrous metal ore and sulfur, and 1.8% to 14.8 million tonnes of chemicals and sodas.
Loading fell 7.8% to 136.5 million tonnes of oil and petroleum products, 1.5% to 41.4 million tonnes of ferrous metals, 4.1% to 8.3 million tonnes of ferrous metal scrap, 5.4% to 15.7 million tonnes of cement and 0.1% to 19.3 million tonnes of industrial feedstock and molded materials.