RIGA, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Rail freight in Latvia dropped by 14 percent in 2016 to 47.8 million tons, according to the national rail company Latvijas Dzelzcels.
The decline accelerated compared with the 2.4 percent drop registered in 2015 when the rail freight ended with 55.65 million tons.
By categories, export freight was down 16.3 percent from 2015 to 2.4 million tons in 2016, while import freight fell 12.9 percent to 42 million tons.
Domestic freight also decreased by 11.4 percent on year to 1.5 million tons.
Latvian rail system sent 16 percent less coal in 2016, despite a surge of 28.4 percent in December.
The amount of ferrous metals carried by rail in December was 2.4 times higher than a year ago and reached 161,000 tons. In the full 2016, transportation of ferrous metals surged 43.1 percent on year to 1.8 million tons.
Meanwhile, the amount of oil products shipped by Latvian railways fell 23.6 percent to 16.6 million tons. In December, oil product shipping was down 36 percent on year to 1.2 million tons.
