Freight load on Russian rails sees bigger dip than expected at 1.5% in Sept
MOSCOW. Oct 1 (Interfax) - Russian rails carried 104.7 million tonnes of freight in September, a 1.5% year-on-year decrease, OJSC Russian Railways (RZD) said.
September freight turnover was also down 1.5% at 179.2 billion tonne-km, although, considering empty miles, it was up 1.9% at 230.3 billion tonne-km.
For the first three quarters of 2013, the freight load was down 3% year-on-year at 924.3 million tonnes. The oil and petroleum product load dropped 2.8% to 186.3 million tonnes, construction freight was down 4.7% at 132.8 million tonnes, ferrous metals - 5.4% at 52.6 million, cement - 0.6% at 27.4 million, timber - 0.6% at 27.4 million, industrial raw materials and molding materials, chemicals and soda - 6.6% at 19.6 million, non-ferrous ore and sulfur - 7.9% at 15.7 million, scrap ferrous metal - 9.7% at 12.3 million tonnes, coke - 11.4% at 8.6 million tonnes and grain - 35.6% at 8.5 million tonnes.
The coal load increased 0.8% to 227.7 million tonnes, iron and manganese ore was up 1.3% to 82.7 million and chemicals and mineral fertilizer was up 2.1% to 34.7 million tonnes.
January-September turnover was down 2.6% at 1.615 trillion tonne-km and with empty miles 0.5% at 2.069 trillion tonne-km.
Sources told Interfax earlier that the monopoly expected a 0.7%-1.3% drop in its freight load. "The confirmed plan was a daily average of 3.52 million tonnes," one source said. Another said the plan envisages shipment of at least 3,500 tonnes per day. RZD Vice Presdient Salman Babaev said in late September that the company was trying to achieve a dip of 0.7%. The results were worse than expected.
RZD expects the freight load to fall by around 1.1% in October, Babaev said. RZD Senior Vice President Anatoly Krasnoschek said a serious decline in indicators is not expected at the end of 2013. Figures usually go down in December-January. "Overall a daily load of 3.4 million to 3.5 million will be ensured," he said.
RZD President Vladimir Yakunin said earlier that the company "would like to increase the load in order if not to equal last year to at least close the gap." The official forecast for the year envisages a drop of 2.4% to 1.24 billion tonnes. Babaev said in late September that he does not see the chance for any growth. "If we achieve 1.24 billion tonnes this year - we are heroes," he said. The actual forecast has not changed.