Transnet holds back the economy

[John Ashworth]

Transnet holds back the economy

The rail company and its shareholder owe us an explanation for lost opportunities — and a plan...

Coal miner Exxaro last week reported its profits increased by more than 50% for the year to December. It could have earned much more but for the woes at Transnet Freight Rail which forced Exxaro to cut production at its coal mines by 10%, costing it R5bn or so in lost export sales. Likewise African Rainbow Minerals, which last week reported that its coal earnings increased thanks to higher export thermal coal prices. But this was offset by lower sales volumes due to Transnet Freight Rail’s “logistics challenges”. Thungela, the thermal coal exporter that was spun out of Anglo American in 2021, has yet to report results. But it has also flagged Transnet as a huge issue, warning the market in October that the rail operator’s performance had got worse, despite hopes of improvement earlier in the year. The privately owned Richards Bay Coal Terminal, through which most of SA’s export coal goes, reported in January that export volumes had plummeted to 1996 levels. Coal exports of just 58.7-million tonnes were way down on the budgeted 71-million tonnes; Transnet Freight Rail was the main reason for this...

It has been a constant refrain of cable theft and Transnet’s locomotives standing idle because they can’t be fixed or don’t have spares. Criminal syndicates are involved in the cable theft, which has reached industrial-scale proportions. State capture is blamed in part for the maintenance shambles with the heavy-haul locomotives that pull the coal, many of which were bought through the corrupt China South Rail contract. The private sector in the coal sector has tried to help, providing and paying for extra security on the lines and even offering to procure spares for the locomotives. All, apparently, to little avail...