About 100 000 tonnes of coal has failed to reach the Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT), after a computer failure on Wednesday night that blocked trains from being loaded at mines, but there was no impact on exports.
Spoornet spokesperson Mike Asefovitz said on Friday the computer glitch at the terminal was fixed on Thursday afternoon but a backlog of undelivered coal has built up.
”The trains couldn’t get to the mines to load up and this has caused a ripple effect into the system causing a backlog,” the rail freight operator’s spokesperson added.
Asefowitz said the deliveries at RBCT usually averaged about 1,2-million to 1,5-million tonnes of coal per day.
RBCT’s chairperson and chief executive officer, Kuseni Dlamini said the glitch was minor and would not affect exports.
”Not at all, exports are going smoothly and we normally have stockpiles of about three million to six million tonnes a day, so the glitch did not stop us loading our ships,” Dlamini said.
The problem has left 14 trains, each with 100 empty wagons, that were due to leave for mines at midnight on Thursday, stranded at the terminal, Spoornet said. – Reuters