Photo by: Duane Daws
State-owned railways utility Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) announced on Wednesday that it would begin a 14-day total shutdown of the coal export line on July 11. The yearly maintenance shutdown would continue until July 24.
On average, 230 000 t/d is railed down the corridor, which links the Mpumalanga coalfields to the private Richards Bay Coal Terminal, in KwaZulu-Natal.
TFR still expects to move around 76-million tons during its current financial year to March 31, 2017, having railed only 72.1-million tons in 2016, owing to weak market conditions.
TFR said the focus of the 2016 shutdown would be to address a maintenance backlog, replace old, obsolete and problematic infrastructure and accelerate capital upgrades in line with the expected future volume growth.