RICHARDS BAY (miningweekly.com) – In 2017, Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) exported a record 76.47-million tons of coal on the 907 ships that called in that year, and RBCT chairperson Nosipho Damasane believes that exports can be uplifted to the 81-million-ton level, because when Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) does have a cracker of a day, RBCT is able to proportionately handle and move the equivalent of that volume – plus.

Rail volume recovery is the biggest go-get essential, with derailments and security issues in the first part of last year holding back cubic measure in a manner that South Africa should not allow to occur ever again.

“The key to our success has always been collaboration with Transnet,” was Damasane’s comment against the background of collaboration having never been more ardent.

On the export front, the team has been able to meet the equivalent of a 91-million-ton performance. It proved this in its recent catch-up, after bad weather led to the build-up of a queue of 15 vessels representing 1.3-million tons of coal.

“I’m comfortable that we certainly have the capacity. If we’re asked to run at the 81-millions or peak higher than that, even with a reduced number of people that we've got, we’re fully equipped to meet whatever’s thrown at us,” RBCT CEO Alan Waller told the media briefing attended by Mining Weekly.

Efforts to restore operational efficiency are being intensified through the National Logistics Crisis Committee, with joint initiatives that are coming from Business South Africa, Transnet, from the industry stakeholders, customers, and Minerals Council South Africa, and “we are beginning to see stability coming through the process,” said Damasane, with breakthrough projects being tackled together.

Rail reform to make things better for Transnet is the next essential advance, with an increase in railway line capacity needed as well as third-party involvement.

RBCT's mutual cooperation agreement with Transnet is enabling the rapid procurement of locomotive parts such as compressors and batteries on a recovery basis. This agreement is used in instances in which the industry can do something faster or more efficiently. Although it is not an automatic go-to and must be motivated within both structures, RBCT reports that it has certainly worked well in several areas.

“There’s really good collaboration between the teams in coming up with the technical specifications, bearing in mind that Transnet still has to own the infrastructure, own the spares, and make it work,” Waller outlined.

Infrastructure assessment is being done jointly and a key value-creation project coming out of that is the reinstatement of signalling between Ermelo and Richards Bay, where cable theft has decimated the rehabilitation of the signalling systems.

“We’re hoping that an award will be made in the next month or so, and that's probably about a 12- to 15-month initiative,” Waller stated.

On its own, this project is set to unlock about seven-million tons of coal, which would be a significant gain to the value chain.

RBCT is engaging with Transnet to understand who is best positioned to do this work, along with how it will be done and funded.

Third-party operators are seen as a positive that needs to happen.

“But until we get the base infrastructure restored, it's going to be very difficult to run additional trains. So, industry's focus has been a collaborative focus with TFR and TRIM to get the base infrastructure reinstated.

“At that stage, we then understand what the locomotive capacity is, and you can understand whether there is capacity for third-party operators to take place.

“We also have collaboration on major incidents. If we do have derailments, where we can rally together and get quicker responses, then the industry will assist in that regard.

Meanwhile, the benefits of the work of breakthrough teams have already been apparent in terms of daily operations and efficiencies, which has helped to lift the 47.92-million tons railed in 2023 up to 51.9-tons railed in 2024, a four-million-ton improvement.

The annual coal export allocation of the junior mining company stakeholders continues to be four-million tons on 81 million tons, which amounts to 2.96-million tons, of which they have achieved 2.66-million tons in the 2024 year, along with an 18% price rebate incentive scheme for juniors based on the RBCT throughput rate.

From 2028 to 2030, a decision will have to be made on two stacker reclaimers and one shiploader that are coming to the end of their lives.

“We could replace them or extend their lives, and the engineering team have got plans for both of those options,” said Waller.

One debottlenecking project to be revisited when tonnages get back to the 70-million-ton-a-year level, will be to optimise output from shiploader 1 and shiploader 2 amid debottlenecking projects completed that were identified earlier.

RBCT exported 52.08-million tons of coal in 2024, up on the 47.21-million tons of 2023, which was the lowest since 1992.

Once again, most of the coal – 84.5% of it or 43.99-million tons – was exported to Asia, with 25-million tons going to India and 2.37-million tons to Pakistan.

The Europe offtake was 4.8%, through mainly Netherlands and Germany, Morocco and Mauritius were the main takers under the Africa heading and the 3.9% to the Middle East went mainly to the United Arab Emirates and Israel.

The coal from 69 collieries is delivered by TFR to RBCT, where it is loaded and stored, with vessels coming into the port to receive it and ship it.

RBCT’s top eight shareholders have a right to appoint a director to the 12-person board. The new member is Ulrich Bester of Liberty Coal, which in December took up the shareholding of the old Optimum Coal. The one commercial user, Mbokodo, will this year decide whether to exercise their option to convert to a shareholding or alternatively to give up their commercial user contract.

RBCT’s coal exporting parties are Glencore, African Rainbow Minerals, Sasol, Seriti, Thungela, Exxaro, Kangra, Liberty Coal, South Dunes, Quattro Junior Miners, Black Royalty Minerals, Tumela Coal Mines, South African Coal Mine Holdings and Umcebo Mining.