Transnet Freight Rail (TFR), which has seen an increase in truck congestion on the precincts of Richards Bay Port in the past few weeks, has commenced a collaborative coal haulage service in partnership with Eswatini Rail.
This comes as Anchor Capital investment analyst, Seleho Tsatsi, said last month that feedback from thermal coal exporting companies indicated that TFR was currently railing 46 million tons on an annualised basis based in the first half of the year.
This, however, remained “well off levels of 70-71 million tonnes just 4-5 years ago and even below last year,” with the recent annual shutdown of the TFR coal line expected to have worsened the situation and resulted in truck congestion at the ports.
To mitigate against this, TFR and Eswatini Rail, in collaboration with customers, had kick-started “a coal service via the Golela line to Richards Bay to boost coal haulage” to the port.
The private sector in South Africa, including bulk commodity miners including coal and iron ore producers, have been collaborating with Transnet to unlock the rail and port gridlock that has been negating productivity, movement of commodities and exports.
The National Logistics Crisis Committee (NLCC) has also weighed in to resolve this in a bid to recover capacity on the Transnet coal line back to the pre-Covid numbers. This is in line with the Transnet Recovery Plan under which TFR is exploring various last mile strategies to optimise port logistics output.
“These strategies will aim to further reduce congestion in the port precinct whilst allowing those exporters who have an appetite to road haul to continue doing so at a faster turnaround time,” said TFR this week.
During the period of the annual coal line shutdown running up to August 9, exporters ramped up road volumes in order to supplement loads and cargo that would have gone on rail as they seek to keep supply chains operational and meet firm vessel commitments.
This, said TFR, explained the truck congestion in the Richards Bay Port precinct over the weekend of 9 August 2024.
However, with the rail service returning normal after the shutdown, and as ramp-up initiatives take effect, Road Motor Transport (RMT) levels in the Port of Richards Bay are expected to normalise, said the parastatal.
Additional train slots on the coal line were unlocked during the annual shutdown. Two additional slots and 28 km of speed restrictions had been unlocked, enabling TFR to increase from 24 planned train slots per day to 28 planned train slots per day to the Richards Bay Coal Terminal.
The GF Coal channel, which facilitates export of coal through the Richards Bay Multi-purpose Terminals (MPT), and the Navi Trade Terminals, had also seen a ramp up from 21 trains a week to 28 planned trains a week in the first 6 months of the current year.
BUSINESS REPORT