China's national railway network shipped 1.39 billion tonnes of coal in the first eight months of 2026, including 928 million tonnes of thermal coal, according to data from China State Railway Group Co., Ltd.

Coal stockpiles at power plants directly served by the national railway remained at high levels throughout the period, the company said.

The railway operator leveraged its unified network and centralized dispatch to boost coal outbound shipments from the major producing regions of Shanxi, Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang, prioritizing thermal coal transport to support peak summer power demand.

The national railway also reported year-on-year growth in other cargo categories during January-August, with grain shipments up 9.9%, chemicals up 5.5% and textiles up 21.7%.

In logistics services, the company signed 1,567 integrated logistics contracts with a combined volume of 1.3 billion tonnes during the period, offering customized door-to-door services.

It operated 33,000 "passenger-style" express freight trains in January-August, carrying 36.13 million tonnes of cargo, up 37% year on year, to meet demand from e-commerce and cold-chain sectors.

The company launched 192 rail-water intermodal products under a single-document system, booking 85,200 TEUs, with container rail-water intermodal volumes up 8.6% from a year earlier.

Rail-road intermodal volumes reached 320 million tonnes in the period, up 65.5% year on year.

Railway logistics financial products including "freight loans" and "freight certificates" have provided a cumulative 13.2 billion yuan in financing to date.

Overall, the national railway shipped 2.69 billion tonnes of cargo in January-August 2026, with average daily loading of 187,400 cars, edging up from the same period last year and remaining at elevated levels.