Loading on the Russian Railways network in February amounted to 95.9 million tons
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Loading on the Russian Railways network in February still lags behind last year – by 1.4% month-on-month and somewhat deeper taking into account the leap year factor. Among the reasons, Russian Railways OJSC names the incomplete use by shippers of export opportunities through the ports of the Azov-Black Sea basin due to market reasons, the decline in the transportation of construction cargo after the completion of large infrastructure projects, and a lack of traction. According to experts, no improvement can be expected in the coming months, however, if Russian Railways OJSC is able to deal with technological factors constraining transportation, a change in trend can be expected by May-June.
Loading on the Russian Railways network in February amounted to 95.9 million tons, which is 1.4% less than a year earlier. At the end of the month, growth was shown in the transportation of industrial raw materials (by 25%), mineral fertilizers (by 12.5%), grain (by 12%), coke (by 10.7%), other cargo, including container cargo (by 7 .9%), cement (by 7.1%), timber cargo (by 4.5%). There is also a slight advantage in transporting ferrous metals and oil cargo.
The loading of ferrous metal scrap decreased by 28.6%. Also in the deep red – by 18.4% – is the transportation of construction materials. JSC Russian Railways notes the continued negative dynamics for construction cargo “due to the completion of a number of large infrastructure projects in the road sector and the optimization of logistics with a reorientation to nearby quarries.” As in January, the loading of the most massive cargo on the network – coal – lags significantly behind last year’s indicators; in February the lag was 4.5%.
Russian Railways OJSC speaks of a significant contribution to the “underload” from opportunistic reasons why exporters did not fully use port capacities, especially in the Azov-Black Sea basin.
As in January, problems with traction were a negative factor affecting the dynamics in February (more details see “Kommersant” dated February 28). JSC Russian Railways explains that, together with service companies in the headquarters mode, the company coordinates actions for timely technical maintenance of locomotives to remove the entire required volume of cargo.
In general, JSC Russian Railways notes a trend towards reducing the gap from last year’s indicators. However, statistically this is not entirely accurate, since February 2024 is a day longer than last year and, in terms of a day, the gap between the months is somewhat deeper – 4.7%.
A change in trend cannot be expected in the coming months, says Pavel Ivankin, President of the National Research Center for Transportation and Infrastructure. The key reason is the lack of infrastructure at the Eastern training ground: the fact that we have a new logistics option through St. Petersburg does not reduce the need for infrastructure in the East. In addition to the physical shortage of infrastructure, he says, there are also technological issues that prevent even the existing infrastructure from being used to the maximum. It is impossible to say that there is no cargo base, like several years ago: there is cargo, it just cannot get onto the railway due to various subjective and objective reasons. Mr. Ivankin considers subjective factors to be those that can be influenced at the moment: the shortage of traction and locomotive crews, how efficiently train traffic is organized, how correctly construction “windows” are planned. These things need to be worked on systematically, Mr. Ivankin believes, and, based on the fact that Russian Railways is aware of the problem and is working to resolve it, we can expect that in May-June there will be a change in trend.
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