A significant share of inflated coal transportation requests is recorded on export routes, primarily along the Eastern Railway Range, according to a recent analytical review published by the Institute for Transport Economics and Development (IEDT).

In October, the total volume of coal not presented for loading under approved transport requests on the Russian Railways (RZD) network reached 1.7 million tonnes, the review states. Of this amount, 1.1 million tonnes were not presented for export shipments, including 0.7 million tonnes on eastern routes. Overall, 15.6 million tonnes of coal were shipped for export in October, representing a 14.5% increase compared with the same period last year.

In September, IEDT reported 2.5 million tonnes of coal not presented for loading, including 1.9 million tonnes designated for export and 0.7 million tonnes on eastern routes. As noted earlier by Irina Magnushevskaya, Deputy General Director of RZD and Head of the Corporate Transport Services Center (CFTC), 1.1 million tonnes of inflated requests during that period originated from Kuzbass alone. According to CFTC estimates, the volume of cargo that could have been transported eastward without the distortion caused by such inflated requests could reach 4.5 million tonnes.

Irina Magnushevskaya also emphasized that coal companies have not been fulfilling their obligations to use innovative rolling stock for export shipments under the regional agreement with RZD. This issue has been acknowledged by the authorities of Kuzbass as well: according to Andrey Panov, Chairman of the Government of the Kemerovo Region, the average utilization rate of innovative wagons during the first nine months of 2025 amounted to 89.5%. He attributed this shortfall to the difficult situation in the industry, higher leasing costs for advanced wagons, and other factors.

Source: Gudok.