Russian railway cargo volumes fell by 9.4 per cent year-on-year in May to 94.6 million metric tons, the sharpest monthly decline since the start of the war in Ukraine.
The data, published on Monday by state-owned monopoly Russian Railways, showed a continuation of a steady downward trend in 2025.
Russia’s economy has started to slow down after two years of strong growth supported by government spending and military production for the war in Ukraine. Industrial output, a key driver of rail freight volumes, rose 1.2 per cent in the first four months of 2025, compared to 5.1 per cent over the same period last year.
The sharpest decline in cargo volumes was seen in oil, construction materials, grain, and metals. For the first five months of the year, total volumes dropped 7.3 per cent compared to the same period in 2024, the data showed.
Russian Railways is set to cut its spending by 3.5 per cent in 2025 due to reduced forecasts of rail shipment volumes, according to a document seen by Reuters. In 2024, volumes fell to a 15-year low due to sanctions, infrastructure bottlenecks, and a shift in trade flows toward Asia.
The economy ministry expects growth in industrial production to slow to 2.6 per cent this year from 4.6 per cent in 2024.