South African logistics group Transnet said on Thursday it would reopen on Friday two rail lines leading to the export terminal at Richards Bay after a derailment earlier this week.
South Africa is a major exporter of coal to power stations in Europe and Asia.
Coal producers have blamed Transnet for failing to move enough coal to the Indian Ocean terminal due to bottlenecks on its rail network and an ageing fleet of locomotives and wagons.
“We should be opening both lines by tommorrow morning,” said Sandile Simelane, a spokesperson for the group’s freight arm.
Simelane declined to say how much coal was transported via that route and what the impact of the December 27 derailment would be on exports, but said the company would manage to make up for the interruption.
“We will recover,” he said, adding that the company was still investigating the cause of the accident at Commondale on the southern border of the coal-producing Mpumalanga province.
He also said the derailment would not affect Transnet’s goal of raising the amount of coal transported to the export terminal beyond the 61-million tonnes shipped last year. – Reuters