In January 2010 overall volumes carried by First Cargo joint stock company (FCC) rose as much as 1.7 times from the same period last year, reached 21.1 million tons and 3.8 percent down as compared with figures posted in December last year, the FCC statement said.

The decline was predictable but slightly lower than expected. In January 2010, the company’s 22 percent added to overall freight volume transported via Russian railroad network (6.5% more than in January 2009 and up 2.7% from December 2009).
This January the company gained in volumes shipping 7.3 million tons of coal (up 60.9% over January 2009), 6.2 million tons of oil cargo (+32%), 2 million tons of ore (+150%), 1.4 million tons of ferrous metals or a 180 percent jump over 01.09, 0.6 million tons of timber cargo (+67.4%), 0.6 million tons of building commodities (+20%), 0.5 million tons of chemicals and mineral fertilizers (+154,6%), 0.4 million tons of cement (+11.9%).

First Cargo Joint Stock Company is the largest operator of rail traffic in Russia. State-run Russian Railways is the founder and 100% owner of ordinary shares in FCC. The freight volume shipped last year by FCC was at 231.8 million tons or as much as 1.9 times more than in 2008.