State-owned Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) said on Tuesday that it had railed a record volume of coal to the Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) during August.
The parastatal had deposited almost 6.9-million tons of coal at the terminal for export during the month. This compared with a previous record of just under 6.6-million tons in August 2011.
RBCT previously reported having exported 5.16-million tons of coal in August, compared with 6.16-million tons the previous month. The port had 4.65-million tons of stock at the terminal by the end of August.
TFR aimed to increase its railed capacity to the port to over 81-million tons a year during the next year and had implemented initiatives to boost efficiencies on its export coal line.
These included the 200-wagon Class 19E-pulled train service called Shongololo Millipede, which runs directly from the mines in Mpumalanga to the port, without having to stop for crew changes.
RBCT was gearing up to export up to 73-million tons of coal this year, up from 68.3-million tons in 2012.