The amount of ferrous and non-ferrous shipments Russian Railways Public Company handled in April 2011 went down by 2.3% and 1.3%, respectively, the online portal RZhD-Partner reports.

Russia’s cargo index (which refers to the volume of railway shipments around the country) came to 104.8% in absolute terms in April 2011; this was 1.8% less than a month earlier.

Last month, the shipments of only three out of nine cargo types that the cargo index covers were actually greater than in April 2010.

The decrease is also noticeable in the maim cargo types in the mining and metallurgical sector: the coal, ferrous, and non-ferrous metal shipments dropped by 1.7%, 2.3%, and 1.3%, respectively.

Notably, the railway company’s chief computer operations center reports that UC RUSAL’s aluminum shipments declined by 10.7% in January-April 2011, which has to do with the company switching to other modes of transport for the delivery of its consignments.