South Africa’s state-owned rail company, Transnet, needs $669 million and five years to upgrade its equipment to restore the performance of its main coal export line, according to an internal report.
Coal shipments dropped to a three-decade low of 48 million tons last year due to inefficiencies at Transnet, which attributed its struggles to a shortage of locomotives and spare parts.
Additionally, infrastructure faults and signaling system issues are major factors limiting coal transportation to the Richards Bay Coal Terminal, the continent’s largest facility of its kind.
According to the final executive summary report, co-authored by logistics firms Thelo Group and Deutsche Bahn, the company has set a “conservative” coal export forecast of 54 million tons for the current financial year.
Transnet aims to increase this to 78 million tons through remedial actions. However, the report warns that a “do-nothing” approach could see volumes plummet to 38 million tons.
The report highlights that network faults, disruptions, and manual authorizations causing delays result in more significant losses than the unavailability of rolling stock. Additionally, theft and vandalism of equipment and signals have exacerbated these challenges.
