Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) is one of the leading coal export terminals in the world. Non-Coking Coal export from RBCT increased by 26% M-o-M to 6.93 MnT in May’17. The coal terminal had exported 5.50 MnT coal in Apr’17, according to the vessel line data maintained by CoalMint Research.
RBCT has set a coal export target of 77 MnT for 2017. In 2015, RBCT exported a record 75.4 MnT of coal but fell back to 72.5 MnT last year.
Major Non-Coking Coal Importing Countries:
India remained major Non-Coking Coal importer from RBCT in May’17, followed by Pakistan, Taiwan and Spain.
Indian coal import from RBCT increased 13% M-o-M to 3.34 MnT in May’17.
The reason for the rise in imports could be attributed to the high Indonesian coal prices during Apr’17, which drifted Indian buyers towards South African Coal market to meet their demand.
Pakistan, second-largest coal importer, recorded a fall in their coal imports. The country received 0.66 MnT coal in a May’17 against 0.78 MnT in Apr’17.
Taiwan was the third largest coal importer from RBCT. Monthly Coal imports increased 106% M-o-M to 0.33 MnT in May’17 compared with 0.16 MnT in Apr’17.
Source: CoalMint Research
South Africa Coal Rail Repair Period Shortened:
State-controlled Rail Company, Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) which moves coal from mines to the port, has shortened its annual maintenance period for the main South African coal export line.
Maintenance along the line to RBCT from mines will take place on 11-17 Jul’17. The maintenance work will take 7 days instead of the usual 10 because some of the work has already been completed.
In Jan’17, TFR had planned RBCT line maintenance for 10 days over 11-20 Jul’17.
Line maintenance period had been moved from May’17 to Jul’17 to better align with India’s monsoon season which runs from June-September.
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