http://www.businessday.co.za/Articles/C ... x?id=80945
Published in Business Day, 9th September 2009.Transnet will increase coal rail freight sixfold
From Bloomberg
Published: 2009/09/08 05:10:10 PM
The bulk of the increase will be for Eskom’s Majuba plant, he said. Transnet has set aside R40bn for investment in delivering coal in the next decade. Eskom is also expanding electricity generation capacity as part of a plan to meet higher demand that will probably see it burn as much as 200-million tons a year by 2018, from about 120-million tons now.
About 10-million tons of Eskom’s coal will arrive by road by 2015-16, down from about 48-million tons currently, as rail and conveyor transport increases, Magwa said. Transnet will by November complete a study into a possible rail line linking the the Waterberg coal fields in the north to power plants or ports. “We’re now talking much more seriously about finding a way†to ship coal by rail from the Waterberg, Magwa said at the Coaltrans conference in Johannesburg today. In addition to domestic demand for coal from the Waterberg, there is now “more demand†to export coal from the region, he said.
Transnet estimates there will be demand to transport between 81-million and 83-million tons of coal a year on its existing Richards Bay line over the next 15 to 20 years and plans to raise its capacity accordingly. Richards Bay Coal Terminal is Africa’s biggest coal-export facility.
“By June next year we’ll be knocking at doors asking for 81-million tons of coal for export and we are hoping that the coal will be there,†Magwa said. Transnet’s current capacity on the line is 72-million tons annually.
Transnet also plans to boost coal rail capacity to Maputo port in Mozambique to about 10-million tons a year by 2013-14 from less than 2-million tons now.
http://www.businessday.co.za/Articles/C ... x?id=80983
Transnet to boost capacity for coal exports
CHARLOTTE MATHEWS
Published: 2009/09/09 06:21:13 AM
BY JUNE next year Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) will be calling on South African coal producers to put 81-million tons of coal on the export rail line to Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT), almost 20- million tons more than they are expected to export this year, TFR GM Fuzile Magwa said yesterday.
SA is expected to export only 63-million tons of coal this year, for various reasons including problems on the rail line.
Magwa’s comments, at the 8th annual Coaltrans conference in Sandton, come after extensive criticisms from coal producers that although the private sector has invested in increasing the capacity of the Richards Bay terminal to 91- million tons, TFR’s capacity to export is lagging at a maximum of 72-million tons, which is costing the country foreign exchange earnings and job opportunities.
As a result of Transnet’s lack of capacity, a substantial amount of SA’s coal is being transported by road, which has severely damaged the road infrastructure in certain areas, particularly Mpumalanga province.
Reinhardt Transport Group chief operating officer Graham Gaskell told the conference that the number of trucks on SA’s roads had increased to about 300000 last year from 200000 in 2000, and said that 55% of SA’s coal was being transported by road.
Because of the increased number of trucks and lack of skills in maintenance and law enforcement, the incidence of truck accidents and fatalities was growing, and was considerably greater in SA than in the US, UK, Australia and Canada, Gaskell said.
Magwa said TFR wanted to improve its capacity to improve SA’s competitiveness and job creation, and to help coal producers take advantage of opportunities to sell to the west coast of India. It would look at public-private partnerships “of all kinds†to help share the risk and ensure the assets were managed properly.
The short-term increase in rail capacity to 81-million tons to RBCT would come from improving the availability of the network.
In the longer term, TFR’s studies suggested that SA’s average coal exports over the next 15 years would be in the region of 81-million to 83-million tons a year. TFR had commissioned a study on how to increase its capacity to 91-million tons. The main problem, which would absorb most of the capital spending, would be to double the size of the Overvaal tunnel, a 7km stretch through which only one train can pass at a time, he said.
TFR wanted to open the export channel through the rest of the Richards Bay port to smaller producers who were unable to use the Richards Bay terminal. TFR also intended to improve inland links to Eskom power stations so that by 2016 it could transport 31-million tons of coal by rail to Eskom compared with five million tons at present, which would reduce road volumes.