February income from freight transport up 10.9%

Income from freight transportation in February 2010 rose 10.9% year-on-year (y/y) after an increase of 10.6% y/y in January, data released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) on Monday, 19 April 2010, showed.

The volume of goods transported (payload) rose by 3.1% y/y in February to 52.377 million tons.

Stats SA said the income from freight transportation for the three months ended February increased by 9.8% compared with the three months ended February 2009.

The main contributors to this increase were primary mining and quarrying products (35.0% and contributing 8.6 percentage points) and basic metals and fabricated metal products (41.2% and contributing 1.9 percentage points).

The data also revealed that income from passenger transportation decreased by -2.1% in February to R646 million, after rising 6.5% y/y in January, but the number of passengers for the month of February was up 3.4% y/y due to more passengers being transported by rail.

The income from passenger transportation for the three months ended February increased by 4.1% compared with the three months ended February 2009.

The main contributor to this increase was road passenger transportation (5.9% and contributing 4.4 percentage points), Stats SA said.