Russian Railways (RZD) (RTS: RZHD) shipped 677.6 million tonnes of freight in the first half of 2008, an increase of 2.9% or 19.2 million tonnes over the same period last year, the company said in a press release according to Interfax.
RZD shipped 5.4% more coal, 9.8% more coking coal, 1.1% more oil and product, 1.4% more iron and manganese ores, 4.9% more iron and steel, 3.5% more chemicals and mineral fertilizers and 7.5% more construction materials. Freight volumes on the entire rail system increased 8.1% to 1.2286 trillion tonne-kilometers. The highest growth in volumes was recorded on the Kaliningrad (17.4% higher), Krasnoyarsk (16.2%), Far Eastern (5.9%) Eastern Siberian (5.7%) and Southern Urals (5.6%) railroads.