[miningmx.com] — COAL exports will be hit by Transnet’s closure of the Richards Bay coal line for 20 days.
Optimum Coal, which announced its quarterly report on Thursday, said Transnet had informed it of the May 23rd to June 11 closure. The line would be shut down for maintenance work.
Vacancies in top positions, which have recently been filled, have affected Transnet’s performance on this line, said Optimum.
During this period the rate at which coal was transported to Richards Bay had declined.
At the same time Transnet had introduced a 26% tariff increase on conveying export coal to Richards Bay. This increase had come into effect on April 1.
According to Optimum spokesperson Sharon Steyn, the interruption would however not necessarily affect the group’s export volume because Optimum apparently had sufficient stock at the terminal.
Zama Luthuli, spokesperson for the Richards Bay Coal terminal (RBCT), reckoned 3m to 4m tons of stock should suffice.
Stocks were being built up in preparation for the maintenance, she said.
At the end of March the RBCT had just over 3m tons of coal stocks, compared with its monthly shipping of some 5.36m tons.
Stock margins had improved since January when derailments on the track had interrupted supplies. At the end of January stocks had been as low as 1.76m tons.
Optimum recently settled a dispute with Eskom regarding the supply of coal to the Hendrina Power Station in Mpumalanga.
The company amended its coal supply agreement with Eskom in that Optimum would have to pay an increased penalty if the quality of coal delivered to Hendrina was not within a specific range.
Last year the dispute had resulted in Optimum cancelling its contract to supply Hendrina with 5.5m tons of coal a year.
The contract would now resume. Private arbitration to mediate the dispute had also ended.
