Volumes improve on critical export coal corridor to Bay
WITH targets set to improve the export of coal through Richards Bay, Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) is counting significant gains with increased volumes on the North Corridor.
The corridor recorded a delivery of 1.413 million tonnes (mt) last week, the highest volume reached this financial year, which is an improvement from the previous record of 1.403mt.
According to TFR, this sets a new benchmark for the number of trains run in a single week during the current financial year.
This included executing 11 chrome trains and 1.182mt on export coal for Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT).
“The milestone achieved by the North Corridor is a definitive demonstration of our collective capability, and serves as the motivation needed for sustained excellence and growth across
Transnet Freight Rail as we advance.
“This accomplishment is a pivotal step in our journey of rebuilding and recovery, affirming that we are on the correct path,” said TFR chief executive Russell Baatjies.
The North Corridor handles an estimated 41% of total TFR volumes and supports key commodity sectors, including export coal and chrome.
Transnet has witnessed signs of recovery by the North Corridor, which was able to improve RBCT export coal volume tonnages from a below 1 million tonne average per week to 1.1mt by December 2023,” said Transnet Group chief executive Adv Michelle Phillips.
Coal export volumes through RBCT declined to 47.21mt last year, more than two million tonnes down from the 50.35mt achieved in 2022. Last year's volumes were last recorded in 1992.
The Bay terminal, together with TFR, cited various challenges on the North Corridor, impacting the critical coal export line and affecting RBCT’s throughput.
These include security, locomotive availability and infrastructure-related issues.
“The widely reported challenges with security, locomotive availability and reliability, as well as network reliability have hampered TFR’s performance on this corridor in the last few years, and management is implementing a number of initiatives in the short, medium and long term, to ensure operational improvements.
“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.
“Transnet continues to intensify the deployment of security measures to reduce cable theft and infrastructure vandalism,” said Adv Phillips.