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Russian Transport Ministry expects growth of rail shipments

Relieving the Russian Railways’ network from the excess railcar fleet will be one of elements to increase shipments, Alexey Shilo noted

MOSCOW, November 19. /TASS/. The Russian Ministry of Transport expects that shipments of Russian Railways will grow in 2025, Deputy Minister Alexey Shilo told reporters.

"We can only assess the pace as of the end of ten months. You now [shipments] go down and it seems to me that hardly any developments occur that will make it possible to somehow replenish such shipments over the last month and a half. Therefore, most probably, shipments [as of the year-end] will be with the decrease. It is very important for counterparts to assume more ambitious plans for the next year," he said.

Relieving the Russian Railways’ network from the excess railcar fleet will be one of elements to increase shipments, he noted.

One of the main factors of the decline in Russian Railways shipments in the first half of this year was lack of the agreement between owners of coal companies and one of the largest ports in South Russia, Shilo said. "Volumes plunged because of this reason alone by about dozen of millions of metric tons," he noted.

Earlier reports said that Russian Railways shipments in January - October 2024 stood at 986.6 mln metric tons, down 4.2% year on year.

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