Representatives of Latvijas dzelzcels: the state-owned railroad company Latvijas dzelzcels (LDz) subsidiary LDz Cargo carried 14.21 million tons of cargo in the first quarter of this year, what by 1.1% less than in the first three months of the last year, writes LETA.
As reported, in the first two months of this year, the cargo turnover was 1.9% lower than in January-February 2008.
Import cargo volume increased 3.6% to 12.5 million tons, whereas export cargo volume grew 7.6% to 580,000 tons.
In March, the volume of land transit and inland shipments increased and, in the first quarter of the year, totaled 803,000 and 322,000 tons of cargo respectively.
Oil products made up the bulk of cargo transportation: 5.68 million tons of oil products were transported by LDz Cargo in the first three months this year.
Coal transportation volume increased significantly – by 27.3%, compared with January-March 2008.
Transportation of chemical cargo increased 17% to 714,000 million tons.
The volume of grain and flour products, mineral fertilizers and ferrous metals transported shrank, mainly due to lower demand in global markets, as the LDz Cargo explains.