China's rail freight volume grows 4.5% in March

China's rail freight volume, an indicator of broad economic activity, amounted to 346 million tons in March, rising 4.5 percent from a month earlier according to the China Railway Corporation.

On average, 11.16 million tons of freight were carried by railway per day in March, its high level since February, which stayed flat from the previous year.

Zhao Jun, director of the freight division at CRC, said daily coal deliveries in March saw a month-on-month increase of 5.1 percent, and the coal storage in captive power plants nationally is available for consumption of over 20 days.

As the spring ploughing season approaches, CRC also enhanced the organization of transport in fertilizers, pesticides and other agricultural supplies, with 6.53 million tons delivered last month, up 40 percent compared to February.

According to Zhao, CRC will pay close attention to national transportation and make sure the system runs smoothly during the epidemic prevention and control period. Confronted with side effects brought by the virus outbreak, CRC is taking multiple measures to help companies tide over difficulties, including cutting down logistics costs, optimizing the supply of freight products and continuously deepening supply-side structural reform in the transport industry.