OREANDA-NEWS.  October 22, 2012. During the first eight months of 2012, the railway network of the countries party to the agreement on the joint use of freight wagons and containers transported 1.42 billion tons of freight, 2.9% more than the amount shipped during the same period last year, reported the press-centre of Russian Railways.      

This was announced at the 57th meeting of the Council for Rail Transport of the Commonwealth of Independent States by Bayram Annameredov, co-chairman of the Council and Turkmenistan’s Minister of Rail Transport.

According to Annameredov, most of the freight shipped was accounted for by coal (23.8%), oil and petroleum products (16.6%), construction materials (14.1%), iron and manganese ores (10%), ferrous metals (5.3%) and chemical and mineral fertilisers (3.6%).

The volume of cargo transported in containers amounted to 17.6 million tons, up 7.4% over the same period in 2011.

Loading volumes increased in most of the railway administrations, including Armenia (+15.4%), Belarus (9.7%), Kazakhstan (+5.5%), Kyrgyzstan (14%), Russia (+3%) , Turkmenistan (22.2%), Uzbekistan (0.3%), Georgia (42.5%) and Latvia (9%).

During the same period, however, loading volumes fell on the railways of Azerbaijan (-3.8%), Moldova (-16.6%), Tajikistan (-20.6%), Ukraine (-0.2%), Lithuania (-8, 1%) and Estonia (-13.1%).

The average distance of shipments during the first eight months of 2012 amounted to 1,328.4 km, an increase of 1.6%.

The increase in freight loading volumes and the average distance shipped was due to a corresponding increase in freight turnover, which rose in most railway administrations except Moldova (-19.9%), Tajikistan (-26.7%), Georgia (-0.4%), Lithuania (-7.2%) and Estonia (-27, 2%). Freight turnover on the network as a whole increased by 5%.

The transportation of goods in international traffic amounted to 17.1% of the total, while domestic traffic shipments accounted for the remaining 82.9%.

The railway administrations of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia increased the volume of export shipments compared to the same period of 2011.

At +1.48%, the increase in freight volumes in domestic traffic was less than in international traffic, which increased by 6.9%.