Railway freight growth rate of 6% in the first three quarters completed 70%

In the first three quarters of 2019, the national railway freight volume reached 2.503 billion tons, an increase of 6.19% over the same period last year. Among them, 289 million tons were completed in September, an increase of 6% over the same period last year. Five of the 18 Railway Bureau Group Companies in China have increased more than 10% in cargo delivery, of which China Railway Urumqi Bureau and Xi'an Bureau Group Co., Ltd. have increased more than 20%. China National Railway Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "State Railway Group") released the above information on October 12.

The growth rate of national railway freight in the first eight months and the first three quarters is 6.19%, which keeps a precise consistency, showing that the potential growth space of railway freight is gradually shrinking.

Looking from the year-round plan, the national railway cargo delivery volume of China Railway Group will reach 3.368 billion tons in 2019, an increase of 5.58% over the previous year, and 74.32% in the first nine months of 2019. "At present, the railway freight volume is basically the same as the planned volume, and China Railway Group is very confident to achieve the annual goal." People from the State Railway Group told China Business News.

On railway transportation tasks throughout the year, Guotie Group recently held a videoconference on the whole road. At the conference, Lu Dongfu, chairman of China Railway Group, said that from September to the end of the year, the "three guarantees, three increases" campaign would be launched throughout the road to ensure the realization of the objectives of the whole year. Lu Dongfu emphasized that we should strengthen the efforts to increase freight transportation and make up for shortages, stabilize bulk and white goods, tap the potential of "six lines and six regions", strengthen the busy trunk lines and key regional transport organizations, increase revenue in container transport, cold chain transport and multimodal transport, maximize the benefit of the whole road, and ensure that the benefit of passenger and freight transport increases by 8% in the whole year.

Railway freight volume continued to increase in 2019. In the first quarter, the first half and the first three quarters, the national railway freight volume increased by 2.9%, 5.62% and 6.19% year-on-year, respectively. Compared with the freight growth rate of 7.92% in the first three quarters of 2018, it also shows that the current freight growth rate is weak.

Daqin Railway, as a barometer of heavy haul coal transportation in China's railways, the main production and operation data continued to decline in the first three quarters of 2019. Da-Qin Railway Data Briefing shows that in the first three quarters, Da-Qin Railway completed a total of 323 million tons of freight transportation, a decrease of 3.98% from the previous eight months to 4.73%. In September, 33.83 million tons of goods were transported along the Da-Qin Railway, which decreased from 8.83% in August to 10.69% year on year.

Daqin Railway Personnel told China Business News that the Daqin Railway is currently undergoing a routine centralized repair every year for 25 days. The centralized repair will affect part of the freight task, and the reduction of freight volume is a normal phenomenon. During the period of centralized repair, Daqin Railway has formulated a plan of 27.5 million vehicles per day. After the completion of centralized repair, the freight volume will increase. At present, the plan is 30.16 million vehicles per day.

China Railway Corporation, the predecessor of the State Railway Group, issued the Action Plan for Incremental Freight Transport from 2018 to 2020 in July 2018, which shows that by 2020, the national railway freight volume will increase by 30% compared with 2017, that is to say, it will reach 4.796 billion tons. Among them, coal transportation has become the most important, accounting for nearly 60% of the total freight volume, reaching 2.81 billion tons, accounting for 75% of the national coal output, and the proportion of bulk freight volume in the total railway freight volume has remained stable at more than 90%.

On September 28 this year, the world's longest-running heavy haul railway, the Haolebaoji-Ji'an Railway (hereinafter referred to as the "Haoji Railway"), was opened and operated at one time. The Haoji Railway can connect multiple coal gathering and distribution lines along the line and realize the function of rail-water intermodal transportation. Yuan Rui, assistant director of the National Energy Group Financial Center, told China Business News that the Haoji Railway has a historical mission to accelerate the integration of the national coal market and improve the efficiency of coal resource allocation. "Haoji Railway is expected to become the third largest strategic coal transport channel after Daqin Railway and Shuohuang Railway."

Daqin Railway is also inviting professional organizations to assess the impact of the opening of Haoji Railway on the national coal heavy haul transport market pattern. Daqin Railway Personnel told China Business News: "Preliminary analysis, from the supply side, there is a slight overlap between the two lines, but it is not serious." The Haoji Railway is concentrated in Yulin area of Shaanxi Province, and the demand end is in the inland area of "two lakes and one river". The Daqin Railway is located in the "three west" areas (western Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi and Shanxi). Coal eventually reaches the Southeast coast, and the overlap degree of demand area is not very large. In terms of passenger transport, in the first three quarters of 2019, the total number of passengers sent by National Railways was 2.740 billion, an increase of 8.51% over the same period last year. In September, the number of passengers sent by National Railways was 288 million, an increase of 3.9% over the same period last year, and the number of passengers sent by EMUs was 187 million, an increase of 10.4% over the same period last year. Fourteen railway bureaus have achieved year-on-year growth in passenger traffic, of which China Railway Nanning Bureau Group Co., Ltd. has the highest growth, reaching 8.9%.