South Africa- state owned Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) is in advanced stage of planning to carry out its annual shutdown of the coal export line, which is expected to take place from 2 Jul’18 to 11 Jul’18.
TFR provide transportation of a variety of commodities like-Coal, Iron ore & Manganese, Steel and Cement in the country though its business units, amongst which the coal business unit accounts for over 60% of the revenue, (as per the information provided on company’s website).
Through the domestic coal sector, TFR plays a vital role in the transportation of requisite amount of coal to Eskom and other industries for electricity generation. Furthermore, TFR is also responsible for exporting sizeable amount of coal through Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT).
The rail-line shutdown of is an annual exercise carried out to ensure that the company performs its maintenance backlog, thereby replacing the old, obsolete and problematic infrastructures; which cannot be completed without stopping the entire train service.
The maintenance program is generally scheduled around this time of the year to take advantage of the slight fall in coal demand from its major customer, India, when most of the buyers had already stocked requisite coal for the monsoon season.
Last year, TFR’s target of coal transportation of 75.8 MnT was not met due to low commodity prices. However, the company had recorded an annual growth of 2.4% in coal exports at 73.8 MnT in 2017, compared with 72.1 MnT in 2016.
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