Slow start to the year for bulk exports at KZN ports

THE Kwazulu-natal ports of Durban and Richards Bay continued their disappointing start to the year last month with a 21.1 percent yearon-year plunge in bulk exports at Richards Bay following a 15.8 percent drop in January.

Full containers imported at Durban fell by 16.9 percent in February after slipping by 4.7 percent in January, while full containers exported staged a recovery and only fell by 10.2 percent in February after an 18.5 percent slump in January. This followed a productive 2018 despite the occasional hiccup caused by cable theft that led to derailments.

Bulk exports out of Richards Bay grew by 19.5 percent in the first quarter of 2018 to 26 million tons (Mt), but growth slowed for the rest of the year. This put into serious question the early 2018 expectation that the improvement in operations by Transnet Freight Rail since the annual maintenance in July 2017 on the line to the Mpumalanga coal fields should see the annual total move above 90Mt in 2018, but as it was, double-digit growth in some months allowed the target to be surpassed with a 4.5 percent rise for the year to 92.8Mt.

Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) chief executive Alan Waller told the 14th Annual Southern African Coal Conference last month that RBCT achieved an annualised throughput of 95Mt in December when they loaded 105 vessels.

RBCT coal exports had fallen to 73.47Mt last year from a record high of 76.47Mt in 2017. This was due to lower exports to South Korea. Asia took the bulk of the coal exports, with a share of 82 percent of all exports last year, while Europe took 10 percent and the rest of Africa 8 percent.

RBCT aims to export 77Mt this year. The rail line to RBCT has a capacity of 81Mt, while the port has a capacity of 91Mt. Overall bulk exports last year were not that fortunate as multiple derailments on the Sishen-saldanha line meant that bulk exports out of Saldanha slumped by 10.5 percent to 57.4 Mt.

Despite lower maize production last year, bulk exports out of all the other ports held up well and there was only a 3.5 percent drop to 17.7Mt. Overall bulk exports fell by 2.0 percent last year to 167.9 Mt.

Full containers imported through Durban rose by 12.4 percent, while full containers exported grew by 6.9 percent for the year. The government is hoping that by making it easier to export, this ratio will be reversed and export growth will exceed import growth this year. The January data was a disappointment, while last month’s data was better as the export decline was less than the import decrease.

Break bulk exports out of Richards Bay, which are mostly aluminium ingots, more than doubled in March last year to 446189 tons from 221939 ton in March 2017, but this high growth could not be sustained..

As yet, BHP Billiton has not indicated whether aluminium shipments from Richards Bay to the US have been impacted by the 10 percent tariff on South African exports to the US.

In January, break bulk exports were 224470 tons and there was an increase to 27119 tons last month.