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The German Federal Statistics Office
reported that Germany
rail cargo tonnage in the first half of 2009 dropped the most since
records began in 1950.
The German railway system transported
147.3 million metric tons of goods in the first six months of 2009,
down 22.4 percent from the year-earlier period.
Quantities of goods transported by
combined traffic (containers, swap-bodies) – as part of the volumes
mentioned above – amounted to 26.9 million tonnes (–21.2%
compared with the first half of 2008). The quantity measured in
Twenty Foot Container Equivalent Unit (TEU) reached 2.5 Million
(–19.3%) and dropped down to nearly to the level of the first half
of 2006 (2.3 million).
In terms of product categories iron
and non-iron metals showed the strongest plunge (–44.1%) which
caused nearly a third of the whole decrease for all products (42.5
million tons as mentioned above).
I did not compare the various six month
period but compiled the following monthly comparisons to last year:
Source:
German Federal Statistics Office
As can be seen the data series is quite
volatile, as shown in the following graph.
Source:
German Federal Statistics Office
The increases in the last 2 months are
encouraging but lets see if the recovery continues.
The decline in iron and non-iron
tonnages do not bode well for companies such as ThyssenKrupp and
Salzgitter.
Tim du Toit is the editor of Eurosharelab.
Kindly note that this blog is published for information purposes and
is not investment advice. Please refer to our disclaimer.
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