Spoornet’s difficulties operating the railway line dedicated to supplying the Richards Bay coal terminal had doomed the export terminal to operating under capacity, the competition tribunal heard on Wednesday, according to Business Report.
The admission that Spoornet could not meet export demand came as Mac van der Merwe, a business manager for the coal line, was called to testify in an acquisition hearing.
The rail utility’s poor performance means South Africa will miss out on making the most of the boom in commodity prices for another six years, as Spoornet will only get its rail capacity up to the level of the terminal’s R1,1-billion expansion by March 2013 — close to four years after the expansion has been completed.
The Richards Bay coal terminal is expanding its export capacity to 91-million tonnes by the middle of 2009, the paper said.
Van der Merwe said Spoornet would not be able to achieve rail capacity of 91-million tonnes by that date as the capacity contract between Richards Bay Coal Terminal shareholders and Spoornet was for only 78-million tonnes of coal to be railed to Richards Bay. – Sapa