Latvian, Lithuanian rail freight volumes up, Estonian Railways lags

  • 2003-12-11
  • Baltic Business News
TALLINN - Latvian and Lithuanian rail freight carriers have increased freight volumes considerably this year, while Estonian Railways has seen the amount of cargo it handles fall slightly.Estonian Railways, which was privatized in 2001, reported on Dec. 9 that over the 11 month period it carried 38 million tons of freight, or about 1 percent less than last year.

At the same time Latvian Railways said it planned to carry over 46 million tons in 2003, or some 15 percent more than in 2002. Latvijas Dzelzcels (Latvian Railways) transported 43.8 million tons of freights from January to November, or 20.4 percent more than the same period last year.
Freight volumes have also soared at Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai (Lithuanian Railways), which in 10 months carried 34.7 million tons of freight, an 18 percent increase against the same period last year.
This year Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai said it intended to post the highest ever amount of cargo handling since the country regained independence in 1991 - as much as 40 million tons.
In Estonia, however, the situation was less bright, though railway officials have tried to remain optimistic.
Ain Kaljurand, marketing manager of Estonian Railways, said that the November result was a sign of a positive trend that the low period is about to be over and freight volumes are returning to former levels.
The company carried 3.4 million tons of freight in November, which, although 3.3 percent less than in November 2002, was up 8.9 percent from the previous month.
"The work done for winning back freight flows is finally paying off. By the end of the year we should be back on last year's levels," said Kaljurand.
"The end of November and early December have been [good] for us, with the average number of freight trains crossing from Russia to Estonia at 35. On two occasions, we received 40 trains in a day," she added.
Oil products made up 68 percent of Estonian Railways' freight volumes and amounted to 2.3 million tons until the end of November. Oil freight is up 0.7 percent in a year, including 3.3 percent growth in heavy fuel oil.
Oil-shale freight was down 14 percent from last year at 310,000 tons. According to Kaljurand, these shipments have sunk because of the new boiler at the Narva power stations that consumes less oil shale and relatively warm weather so far this winter.
Fertilizer shipments are up 27 percent year-on-year, totaling 233,000 tons.
Shipments of coal have increased 60 percent to 207,000 tons.