RZD forecasts cargo transport to increase by 3.7% in 2010
MOSCOW. Dec 10 (Interfax) - OJSC Russian Railways (RZD) forecasts freight volume to increase in 2010 by 3.7% in comparison with 2009, the Russian government said in its materials.
Freight turnover will rise 3.8% to 2.3456 trillion tonne-kilometers next year.
Freight volume in 2009 might total 1.108 billion tonnes, 15% less than in 2008. "At the government meeting on November 13, 2008, [the RZD financial plan] was updated for the benchmarks contained in the scenario calling for a 19% decline in freight turnover," the materials say.
The decline in freight volume slowed in the second half of the year as shipments of certain types of products increased.
The forecast increase in volume (by 52.7 million tonnes) and turnover (by 231.8 billion tonne-km) implies that revenue from freight shipment will increase 18.2 billion rubles to 775.5 billion rubles, the materials say. For that reason RZD wants to revise the forecast of key financial indicators.