Bulk exports slump 6.5% to 13.5-million tons

SOUTH Africa’s bulk export volumes fell 6.5% year-onyear in January to 13.5-million tons. There was also a fall of 2.8% for all of 2016 to 163.3-million tons, data from the Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) showed on Monday.

Policy uncertainty and logistics constraints meant that SA lost out on the 2003 to 2008 commodity price boom, with annual bulk exports increasing by a mere 2.8-million tons between those two years.

Since then, there has been a marked turnaround due to better policy co-ordination between mining companies and state-owned Transnet, so that volumes improved by 45% or 52.3-million tons between 2008 and 2015. However, low commodity prices last

A jump in commodity prices since Donald Trump’s election in November may result in a boost in bulk exports this year, as bulk exports grew 9.5% in November after a 0.7% drop in October. In December last year, bulk export volumes increased 7.4%.

Bulk exports out Richards Bay, which year constrained supply. of are mostly coal, fell 10.8% in January to 7-million tons after easing 2.8% last year to 90.4million tons.

As Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) no longer releases operational statistics, economists are finding it more difficult to track economic performance in SA in a timeous manner.

Bulk exports out of Saldanha, which are mostly iron ore, fell 7.6% in January to 5.3-million tons after a 5.6% drop to 59.8-million tons last year.

The slump in the maize harvest last year did not seem to affect bulk exports out of the other ports such as Durban, with a 12.6% rise to 14.1-million tons after falling 19.3% in 2015 to 11.6million tons.

In January, there was a 46.9% surge to 1.1-million tons. — BDLive