URUMQI, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region saw its railway freight volume top 45.8 million tonnes in the third quarter of 2020, up 10.6 percent year on year, railway authorities said Saturday.

The volume of rail-freighted coal, metallic ores and other bulk materials have maintained growth momentum, thus helping boost the local economy, according to China Railway Urumqi Group Co. Ltd.

Amid regular epidemic prevention and control, Xinjiang railway departments have ensured the smooth transportation of priority goods such as coal, chemical products and metallic ores by expanding station capacity and increasing the operating frequency of 10,000-tonne trains.

Those departments have also cooperated with their Kazakh counterparts to promote international trade, with the transportation volume of imported metallic ores exceeding 1 million tonnes in each of the first three quarters of the year.