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.