Freight load on Russian railroads down 4.7% in October - RZD
MOSCOW. Nov 1 (Interfax) - The freight load on railroads in Russia decreased 4.7% year-on-year to 105.9 million tonnes in October 2013, OJSC Russian Railways (RZD) said.
RZD Vice President Salman Babayev had predicted not long ago that the railways monopoly expected an October decrease of 1.1%.
Freight turnover last month was up 1.4% at 191.1 billion tonne-km, and if empty travel is factored in - 4.3% at 244.5 billion tonne-km.
The freight load decreased 3.2% to 1.03 billion tonnes in January-October, taking into consideration that last year was a leap year. It increased only where bituminous coal was concerned - 0.4% to 254.2 million tonnes, and iron and manganese ores - 1% to 92.4 million tonnes, and chemical and mineral fertilizers - 2.7% to 38.6 million tonnes.
The ten months saw the hauling of oil and oil products decrease 3.1% to 206.1 million tonnes, of construction cargoes 5.1% to 148 million tonnes, of ferrous metals 5.3% to 58.4 million tonnes of cement 1.8% to 30.3 million tonnes, of timber 2.2% to 30 million tonnes, of industrial feedstock and molding materials 6% to 28.5 million tonnes, of chemicals and soda 6.9% to 21.7 million tonnes, of non-ferrous metal ore and raw sulphur 7.6% to 17.4 million tonnes, of ferrous metal scrap 9.9% to 13.9 million tonnes, of grain 31% to 10.3 million tonnes, and of coke 10.9% to 9.5 million tonnes.
Freight turnover for the ten months was down 2.2% at 1.806 trillion tonne-km. If empty travel is included, it was about the same as for January-October last year at 2.313 trillion tonne-km.