Transnet revenues boosted by Richards Bay coal shipments

The news is certain to be well-received by local coal producers, who have long lamented the lack of freight capacity, notable during the height of the 2008 commodities boom.

"Our biggest challenge is sustaining this performance over the medium to long term and we are confident that we are on track to recording significant improvements in throughput for the full year," Molefe said, adding that these numbers reflect substantial achievements by company and its management, all focusing on turning around the Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) division. "There is nothing at the moment that suggests that TFR cannot keep up with the performance," said Molefe.

In the six months to September, the freight rail division's revenue rose 22.7% to R13.2bn compared with the corresponding period last year. This made the biggest contribution to lifting Transnet's turnover 20.3% to R22.4bn. The overall weighted average volume behind the rise in turnover edged up 7.1%. Molefe said the logistics group was working hard to further increase the capacity of the rail line to RBCT to 81million tons a year by 2015. RBCT can handle 91 million tons. Coal prices are still buoyant and are seen remaining so into the foreseeable future on the back of demand from the fast growing economies of China and India, concluded Molefe.

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