OREANDA-NEWS. In January-September 2014, Lemtrans freight forwarding company transported 43.5m tonnes of freight, a 34.4% increase year-on-year. The company managed to ensure effective transportation planning and increase shipments by 63.5% in H1 2014 due to implementation of the strategy for long-term cooperation with the key clients. As a result it helped to offset the poor performance in Q3 caused by the hostilities in the east of Ukraine.

In January-September, the volume of transported coal was 24.48m tonnes (23.11m tonnes over nine months of 2013), iron ore - 8.37m tonnes (5.69m tonnes over nine months of 2013), ferrous metals - 3.92m tonnes (0.97m tonnes over nine months of 2013), fluxes - 3.85m tonnes (1.64m tonnes over nine months of 2013) and coke - 2.20m tonnes (0.58m tonnes over nine months of 2013).

"The company saw a significant drop in the volume of transported freight in August. The average daily loading was 1,754 railway cars while in 2013 it was much higher. In September, we had a similar situation as the car loading per day decreased by 27% year-on-year. The highest drop was in the coal volumes as many mines and coal companies had to suspend operations or significantly reduce coal production," stated Vladimir Mezentsev.

The Company's CEO also emphasised that it is important to continue supplying rolling stocks to the clients and mitigate risks of blocking the railway cars in the region of counter-terrorism operations. This will help to mitigate the negative implications of the situation in the east of Ukraine on operational and financial performance of the company.