During 2016 the ČD Cargo Group transported 65.5 million tons of goods, thus managing to significantly slow the decline in transport volumes on the domestic market and obtain new transport contracts abroad.

"The domestic market in which we operate is a highly competitive environment, where we have to fight with private carriers and large multinational enterprises to retain every ton we transport. In 2016 the transport trend was also affected by a number of external factors, such as the decrease in metallurgical production and the slowdown in the growth of the Chinese economy, as well as the fall in the volume of lockout work we are involved in. Although we have managed to make the most of the opportunity and obtain some interesting new transport contracts, such as diesel from Krailling in Germany for the State Material Reserves Administration and transporting wood from calamity-hit areas in the Jeseníky, this was clearly not sufficient to enable us to completely retain our share of the transport market in the Czech Republic. However, ČD Cargo should not be viewed solely in the light of the domestic transport market. What is important for us is the pan-European market, i.e. the results achieved by the entire ČD Cargo Group", claims Chairman of the Board of Directors of ČD Cargo, a.s., Ivan Bednárik, who adds: "On the foreign markets we are now in a position where we can only profit, and profiting we are. In Poland we have proven that we have the potential to transport goods internationally on our own account and under the ČD Cargo banner. This has enabled the ČD Cargo Group to increase its total year-over-year transport performance. We will also be expanding our transport activities in other neighbouring countries in a similar manner. One way in which we supported this strategy last year was by purchasing the first five modern interoperable Vectron locomotives and another eight series 163 locomotives, which has increased the number of locomotives in the ČD Cargo fleet used for international transport."

Due to the issue of bonds admitted for trading on the regulated market of the Prague Stock Exchange, in 2016 ČD Cargo became a so-called public interest entity, a fact which entails, amongst other things, new obligations and commitments to our investors. The Financial Statements are therefore now prepared in accordance with a single international accounting standard to ensure they are also comprehensible to potential foreign investors. The partial fall in the revenues of the ČD Cargo Group presented in the Financial Statements was fully offset by the saving in operating costs, which, despite the increased amounts invested in the renovation and refurbishment of railway rolling stock, resulted in a significant year-on-year improvement in the profit of the ČD Cargo Group worth hundreds of millions of crowns, a trend we plan to continue in the coming years. Ivan Bednárik adds: "I am delighted that again, a year later, I am able to present the positive results achieved by the ČD Cargo Group. However, we must now focus all our energy on 2017. The company’s long-term objective is to achieve a balanced economy in our individual wagon consignment (SWC) product, the transport of which we have streamlined through internal optimisation measures and projects. Another aspect that has helped improve our results is the higher discount on the cost of the rail transport route for this product, although we have not yet achieved our final goal. We pay close attention to each factor that causes a fall in transport volumes in the SWC system, no matter how small, and in response have prepared and will continue to prepare a range of proactive measures to support this product. Through these activities we would like to move a proportion of SWC journeys from road to rail, thus making better use of our internal operational capacity."