Shipments of grain to ports increased 2.7 times, chemicals and soda - 1.4 times, fertilisers – by 5.7%, coal – by 5.1%
Freight loading volumes on the network owned by Russian Railways and dispatched to Russian seaports for export in the first half of 2023 amounted to 170.9 million tons, 2.4% more than in the same six-month period last year, according to Russian Railways.
Various cargoes totalling 66.4 million tons were dispatched to Russia’s ports in the North-West, an increase of 4.7%, 57.9 million tons to the ports in the Far East, up 3.2%, and 46 .7 million tons to the ports in the South, down 1.4%.
Shipments of grain to ports increased 2.7 times to 6.6 million tons, while chemicals and soda were up 1.4 times to 1.2 million tons, fertilisers 5.7% to 11.2 million tons and coal 5.1% to 93.5 million tons.
The main drivers for the growth in loading volumes dispatched to the ports in the North-West were coal, which increased 19.3% to 29.7 million tons, followed by fertilisers, which were up 6.4% to 9.4 million tons.
In addition to coal, whose volumes increased by 5% to 48.1 million tons, the transportation of oil cargoes for export from the sea terminals in Russia’s Far East was up 7.4% to 3.4 million tons, chemicals and soda jumped by 9.2 times to 380,700 tons and grain saw an increase of 7.2 times to 74,300 tons.
Most grain, however, was dispatched to the ports in South Russia, with volumes increasing by 2.7 times to 6.5 million tons. Fertilisers transported to South Russia rose 2.3% to 1.8 million tons and chemicals 29.2% to 345,000 tons.
With regard to export cargoes, coal accounted for 54.7% of the total, followed by oil cargo on 21.5% and fertilisers on 6.6%, ferrous metals (5%), grain (3.9%) and ores (1.7%).