Estonian rail freight carrier’s cargo volume reached 1.23 million tons in September

Estonian state-owned rail freight carrier EVR Cargo’s freight volume reached 1.23 million tons in September, increasing by 3.8 per cent year-on-year. The overall freight volume during the first nine months of the year remains 3.7 per cent short of last year’s same period, amounting to 11.4 million tons in total.

EVR Cargo’s chairman of the board Ahto Altjõe commented that the transport volumes of oil products continued to decline in September, whilst being somewhat off-set by an increase in the freight volumes of fertilisers, chemical goods and oil shale.

Container volumes hauled by EVR Cargo were up 2.1 per cent year-on-year in September, reaching 6628 TEUs in total. EVR Cargo has hauled 57233 TEUs during the first nine months of the year, an increase of 27.5 per cent compared to last year. “The modest growth percentage of container traffic in this month is caused by the high comparison basis of last year - in fact the container haulage result in September is better than the average monthly volume of container traffic of EVR Cargo,” noted Altjõe.

The volume of mineral liquid fuels decreased by 17 per cent to 356 thousand tons in September, the volume of fertilisers increased by 10 per cent to 297 thousand tons and the volume of oil shale transport increased by 42 per cent to 275 thousand tons year-on-year. The freight volume of chemical goods increased by 30 percent to 123 thousand tons. The transport volume of dry bulk goods dropped by half a per cent to 66 thousand tons.

In September, Russia remained as the main trade partner for EVR Cargo in railway freight with 616 thousand tons, increasing by 7 per cent. Latvia’s share increased to 77 thousand tons by 5 per cent and Kazakhstan increased their share by 53 per cent to 146 thousand tons. Lithuanian and Belorussian volumes decreased respectively by 49 and 88 per cent to 32 thousand tons and 10 thousand tons.

The volume of transit freight reached 762 thousand tons in September, forming 62 per cent of the total volume and staying two per cent below last year’s result.

The transit volume of mineral liquid fuels during the nine months of the year has decreased by 14 per cent to 4.55 million tons. The freight volume of fertilizers has increased by 15 per cent to 2.49 million tons and the volume of chemical goods has increased by 6 per cent to 0.84 million tons. Oil shale transport has dropped by 4.7 per cent to 1.86 million tons and the volume of dry bulk cargo has been reduced by 13 per cent to 0.55 million tons. The share of transit freight increased by one per cent to 7.62 million tons during nine months, forming close to 67 per cent of the total freight volume.

AS EVR Cargo was separated from Estonian Railways in 2012, the company serves its customers in Estonia on a 1229-kilometre long railway track as well as over the entire 1520-millimeter gauge railway network, stretching from Finland to the Black Sea and from the Baltic States to the coast of the Sea of Japan, covering all CIS member states. Rail cars are hauled to and from Russia and surrounding regions in block trains or shuttles, requiring less formalities and thus ensuring faster delivery times. The company also has its own fleet of more than 3300 wagons and 80 locomotives and offers rolling stock repair and maintenance services to its customers. The Estonian logistics hub has several competitive advantages: fully renovated railway infrastructure with more than 25 million tons of annual free capacity, modern port and terminal infrastructure, transparent costs and a business-friendly tax and economic environment.