Overall volumes fell 1% compared with the same period in 2012 to 274.1 million tonnes, although there was significant variation in performance between sectors. Export traffic fell by 3.5% and domestic traffic declined 1.8%, but import traffic grew by 4.8% year-on-year.

Agricultural products plunged by 11.7% and there were substantial declines in short-term consumer products (-10.6%) and metallurgical products (-6.6%). Nonetheless, raw materials including coal, crude oil and gas climbed 8.4%.

Intermodal transport, including containers and swapbodies, remained stable compared with the corresponding period in 2012, at around 4.8 million TEU.