Russia's Transportation Ministry expects rail freight transportation to decrease by more than the government-projected 6 percent in 2009 compared with 2008, the ministry's head Igor Levitin told journalists today according to RBC. According to him, the ministry was set to revise its rail freight haulage forecast because, in Levitin's opinion, the demand for such services from major companies (in particular, metallurgical) will deteriorate dramatically.
Meanwhile, the minister stressed that tariffs for this sector would not change in 2009. According to him, consideration will be given to provide compensations for rail freight operators from the federal budget that would eliminate the need to change the current indexation scheme.
In early December, an industry source revealed that Russian Railways' freight operations could shrink by 19 percent instead of the earlier projected 6 percent in the wake of the financial crisis, which could prompt the company to make new revisions to both its investment program and budget.