Africa’s growth depends on solid transport networks and Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) as a freight-focused business not only links the continent’s economy but also plays a vital role in strengthening southern Africa.
Its heavy haul operations in South Africa are at the cutting-edge of technology, offering commercial and competitive advantage to economies with vast mineral resources. It moves South Africa’s natural resources to factories and refineries while ensuring that industries keep growing.
Iron men
TFR operates an iron ore line — the only line of its kind in southern Africa — and runs from the Northern Cape along the west coast to the port of Saldanha. The iron ore line is the world’s second longest heavy haul line. This essential transport line benefits South Africa’s economy by literally keeping it moving. South Africa is the largest producer of iron ore in Africa. Iron ore is mined in the Northern Cape, the Mpumalanga mine complexes as well as in KwaZulu-Natal and TFR drives the economy with its unique iron ore line.
Black gold
TFR also operates a coal line. Coal is known as South Africa’s black gold and is a major export commodity. TFR provides a world-class service to ensure that South Africa remains one of the world’s largest coal exporters. This coal line runs through undulating typography and crosses 137 bridges and 37 tunnels. This includes traversing the Overvaal tunnel which is four kilometres long. The majority of this line is dual carriage with a third line on some feeder sections.
Freight solutions
Over and above the heavy haul service, TFR’s core business is in offering freight logistics solutions. Part of this is its interests in South Africa’s containerised freight market. The latter is divided into three categories: import traffic, export traffic and domestic traffic. Containerised freight requires the management of import traffic, meaning containers that enter through a South African port with a domestic or over-border destination. The company also manages export traffic, meaning containers leaving South Africa through the country’s ports.
Finally, it deals with domestic traffic, which is the management of containers transported within and over the country’s borders. TFR’s container service is supported by six major inland terminals and 19 satellite depots strategically located next to port facilities in South Africa. These facilities are fully equipped to handle large volumes of containers.
The company is further involved in transporting fast moving consumable goods. This is part of the agriculture sector and in some cases the produce being delivered is time-sensitive so deliveries have to be speedy.
To save time, specialised wagons are used for ease of loading and offloading goods.
TFR offers an optional insurance service to ensure peace-of-mind value to customers, particularly those who are transporting time-sensitive goods. The core benefit of TFR’s service, though, is the predictability provided by running dedicated trains and this translates into cost-efficient transportation.
From tree to plant
The timber sector benefits from TFR’s efficient transport facilities. Key to the services offered in the timber and paper industry is the transportation of pulpwood from the forests of Mpumalanga, KwaZulu Natal and the Eastern Cape to the paper or pulp mills in Geduld, Ngodwana, Richards Bay, Mandini and Umkomaas. Pulpwood is transported to timber chipping plants in Richards Bay and Durban, from where the wood chips are exported to the Far East. Paper pulp is also transported to various domestic markets. Mining timber is transported from Mpumalanga to various mines in the interior. TFR uses specialised built timber wagons to transport timber logs. These wagons are designed with only upright stanchions on the side to ease the loading and off-loading process.
Fuel for the nation
TFR is a logistics enabler of choice and plays a significant role in the movement of fuel within South Africa and into Africa. Its fuel services have been designed to match specific types of freight according to parcel size and frequency.
Its mega rail is a dedicated jet fuel train that runs from Durban to OR Tambo International Airport daily. Its flexi rail train is moved from Krugersdorp to Botswana, Pretoria to Zambia and Sasolburg to Beitbridge up north. Its access rail offers transports for small consignment loads, which are transported on mixed general trains. These are distributed throughout the country from all six refineries.
Chemical products in a gaseous, granular or liquid form are well-suited for rail transport and this is where TFR comes in. The movement of chemicals is an extremely complex and specialised service that TFR offers. It collaborates closely with its customers to ensure cost efficiency and a dedicated service. A variety of wagons are used to transport these commodities, including open wagons, flat trucks and tankers that are highly specialised to transport hazardous, non-hazardous and dangerous commodities. The fertiliser sector is a key commodity for the agriculture industry. TFR provides a wide variety of wagon types specifically used for this sector to accommodate commodities that are flaked, in granular form, or liquids.
Raw materials
Cement is a crucial commodity for domestic and industrial construction and lime is a multipurpose commodity critical in the production process for many products. TFR has specialised wagons to cater for this sector’s needs too. Among its transport options, it offers open wagons for bulk raw materials and specialised open wagons for palletised bagged cement. It also has a tanker fleet for bulk cement, fly ash, slagment and lime.
Southern Africa boasts 80% of the world’s chrome and manganese reserves and TFR delivers these materials to ports that are ready for export. Since 1882, TFR has serviced local carbon-steel and stainless steel producers.
Raw materials are railed from mines to steel making plants located in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape. Nine corridors at an average distance of 578 route kilometres have been established to serve steel customers. TFR handles the national movement of copper from Phalaborwa as well as lead and zinc mined in the Northern Cape. Key to the core competency of this division are operational efficiency, sustainability and safety. As a major transporter of grain commodities in southern Africa, TFR connects producing areas throughout the region. This includes major domestic, imported and exported grain commodities. Imports are mainly through South African ports such as Durban, Port Elizabeth, East London and Cape Town. All exports are transported through the Durban and East London Grain Elevator. Cross-border movements are undertaken to neighbouring countries such as Swaziland, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and Namibia.
TFR also focuses on optimising supply chains in the granite industry by providing integrated logistics solutions. These comprise TFR-owned and subcontracted activities beyond rail. The advantages to customers include the elimination of inefficiencies, capacity for inventory management throughout the supply chain and reduced supply chain costs. TFR’s locomotive and wagon fleet renewal plan has been updated to address growth requirements in terms of increased demand for rail services. Railway is the very lifeline of South Africa, the region and continent’s economy. TFR beats in tune with this rhythm as a unified and committed organisation. It is doing so not just for the sake of doing business, but because of its passionate commitment to the economy of Africa and as a tangible contribution to a greener, brighter future for generations to come.
TFR facilitates exports across African borders
The demand for cross-border export from South Africa to neighbouring countries continues to steadily grow and Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) has looked beyond the country’s borders to strengthen and facilitate connectivity in landlocked countries. For TFR, this means restoring rail infrastructure to agreed standards and implementation of minimum maintenance standards for rolling stock in an effort to achieve the vision of borderless freight movement. The rail strategy for Africa requires long-term planning and an integrated transport philosophy for regional trade to prosper into dedicated freight corridors.
Trade corridors
The north-south corridor is a key trading route in sub-Saharan Africa. This corridor extends from the copper-belt in Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Northern Zambia to the port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania to the north-east and then south to South Africa’s ports. Increased mining activity and growth in general trade along this strategic route mean that infrastructure development has become a matter of extreme urgency. Two key projects for the development of a north-south corridor include strengthening the Southern African Railway Association (SARA) in order to continue its role as a strong lobbying partner in the development of railways in southern Africa. The second key project is the establishment of a regional locomotive and wagon leasing pool as part of a public-private partnership, using existing facilities and skills. The road and rail corridor of Maputo links mining, industrial and agricultural production centres in South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique, terminating in Maputo. The Matola terminal is operating at full capacity, mainly due to TFR’s infrastructure upgrade as well as improved efficiencies in bringing down the turnaround times.
Greener operations lead to sustainable railways
Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) has introduced numerous initiatives to manage contamination and pollution at its operational sites as part of global attempts to ensure greener business operations. TFR is committed to a responsible approach regarding handling environmental issues. Environmental risk assessments are conducted to focus on root causes of pollution and developing risk treatment plants to prevent and reduce spillage in operational areas. TFR recognises the risk of climate change to its business activities and the contribution of its operations to the global phenomenon. It ensures that its locomotives, wagons, storage areas as well as maintenance depots are fit for purpose, thereby preventing ongoing pollution. Determining the carbon footprint of the business allows TFR to leverage the inherent environment friendliness of rail.
This article originally appeared in the Mail & Guardian newspaper as an advertorial supplement