Public Joint Stock Company "TransContainer" announced its preliminary operating results for the second quarter and the first half of 2018. The positive operating results were mainly driven by the continuing growth of the Russian container transportation market, which, in turn, was fueled by an increase in international freight flows, as well as positive macroeconomic environment.
Russia's container market continued to demonstrate strong performance in the second quarter of 2018. The transportation volumes in the reporting quarter were up 11.9% year-on-year to 1,060 thousand twenty-foot equivalent units (“TEU”). This was mainly driven by a 19.9% year-on-year increase in international transportation, with export and transit segments demonstrating solid growth.
For the first half of 2018, the Russian rail container market grew by 12.1% year-on-year to 2,065 thousand TEU. In terms of segment breakdown for the six month period, domestic transportation volumes grew by 2.8% year-on-year, export transportation increased by 18.1% year-on-year, while import and transit transportation volumes grew by 19.3% and 28.5%, respectively.
In the reporting quarter, container volumes transported by the Company’s flatcars and containers (including provision of own containers to the third-party flatcars) were up 4.8% year-on-year to 458 thousand TEU. This was mainly due to the continued growth in international transportation, which was up 13.1% year-on-year, with export and transit segments growing by 13.9% and 29.7%, respectively. Lower domestic transportation was partly due to TransContainer’s empty runs optimisation that caused a decrease in the Company’s own empty containers domestic transportation by 9.5% year-on-year. The partial reallocation of flatcar fleet in favour of international transportation was also one of the factors contributing to lower domestic transportation. This was done in order to support the fast-growing volumes on transit routes amid a shortage of the flatcar supply.
Container volumes transported by the Company’s flatcar fleet in the second quarter of 2018 increased by 6.8% year-on-year to 434 thousand TEU from 406 thousand TEU a year earlier. The Company’s revenue-generating container transportation volumes in Russia amounted to 376 thousand TEU in the second quarter of 2018, up 7.1% year-on-year.
For the first six months of 2018, container volumes transported by the Company’s flatcar and container fleet, as described above, grew by 3.8% year-on-year to 893 thousand TEU, mainly as a result of an increase in transit and export transportation.
Container volumes transported by the Company’s flatcar fleet in the first half of 2018 increased by 5.9% year-on-year to 848 thousand TEU from 800 thousand TEU a year earlier. The Company’s revenue-generating container transportation volumes in Russia amounted to 724 thousand TEU in the first half of 2018, up 6.3% year-on-year.
In the second quarter of 2018, the Company’s throughput in the Russian rail container terminal network decreased by 3.1% to 322 thousand TEU, compared to 332 thousand TEU for the same period of 2017. For the first six months of 2018, the Company’s container terminal throughput was down 2.9% and amounted to 604 thousand TEU compared to 622 thousand TEU for the first half of 2017.
The Company’s container handling lagged behind the market dynamics mainly due to the following factors the fast-growing transit volumes have limited impact on the container terminal handling and continuing growth of container freight going directly from/to the producers’ own freight yards.