SA bulk exports fall 11.7% y/y in March to 11m tons

©qdxjw via 123RF

This was after a 15.7% y/y slump in February to 12.6-million tons (Mt) and a 12.2% y/y decline in January to 14.4 Mt following a 7.3% increase in 2015 to a record 168 Mt.

Bulk exports out of Richards Bay, which is mostly coal, fell 2.1% y/y in March to 7.2 Mt after growing 8.2% in 2015 to 93 Mt. As Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) no longer releases operational statistics, economists are finding it more difficult to track economic performance in SA in a timeous manner.

Despite the 40% plunge in the iron ore price in 2015, bulk exports out of Saldanha, which is mostly iron ore, increased 12.7% in 2015 to 63.4 Mt, but in March 2016 there was a 38% y/y plunge to 2.9 Mt. If Saldanha exports are excluded, then total bulk exports would have grown by 4.4% y/y in March.

The 30% slump in the maize harvest last season compared with the previous season has also affected bulk exports with grain and sugar bulk exports from the other ports such as Durban down 19.3% in 2015 to 11.6 Mt, although there was a surprise 12.8% y/y rise in December, the first y/y increase since January 2015. In January 2016, bulk exports out of the other ports plunged 44% y/y to 742,140 tons but rose to 924,943 tons in February, which was still a 7.8% y/y decline. In March, there was a 27.5% y/y jump to 899,038 tons.

Source: BDpro