TRANSNET last week forecast railed export coal to Richards Bay of 48 million tons (Mt) for the 12 months ended March 31 compared to its target of 60Mt.
However, the state-owned rail and ports company said its division Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) reported an improvement in total mineral volumes in the fourth quarter owing to improvements in security on its critical North corridor rail route.
The annualised run-rate for TFR’s coal deliveries to Richards Bay in the fourth quarter was 48.74Mt from an annualised third quarter tempo of 47.10Mt.
Transnet said it had “witnessed signs of recovery” in the North Corridor – responsible for 41% of TFR’s total railed volumes. RBCT export coal volume tonnages increased from less than one million tons average per week to 1.1Mt by December 2023, it said.
“The partnership with industry is resulting in a decline in the number of cable theft incidents on the corridor, although some sporadic incidents still occur,” it said of cooperation with the private sector through the National Logistics Crisis Committee.
By the end of December 2023, total rail volumes of 35.8Mt had been delivered.
According to Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT), a privately-owned export facility, TFR only managed to rail 50.43Mt of coal last year – down from 58.1Mt in 2021 which was then the worst performance since 1996.
RBCT CEO Alan Waller said in January the target export throughput for the current year to December was 60Mt.
Asked how realistic this target was Waller said it was achievable assuming that the new round of initiatives and collaboration underway between RBCT and TFR actually delivered the planned benefits and there were no more strikes or major derailments during 2023.
