Kalahari-basin miner, Kumba Iron Ore, has grown its half-year (H1) bulk load exports on the Sishen-to-Saldanha line by 3%, the miner said in its H1 dividend declaration earlier this week.
Kumba said the improved performance was made possible through stabilization of the line’s use by Transnet Freight Rail (TFR).
Overall capacity expansion increased by 4%, Kumba said, a real-terms overall load improvement up to 83% according to what the line can move in a half-year term.
Derailments in the second quarter of H1 impacted results for the first six months of the year.
Whereas December’s figures recorded 500 000 tonnes for the half-year, the Port of Saldanha received a million tonnes for H1/2025.
Although Kumba recorded $91 million per tonne, 8% better than the current benchmark price for ore, it declared a dividend of R16.60 per share, which decreased by 12% year-on-year (y-o-y).
The previous dividend for the same y-o-y period was R18.77.
Kumba said the R16,1 billion net profit yielded at the end of June is in large part attributed to TFR’s operational improvements on the line, mitigating lower global ore prices by enabling the miner to shift more load.
Kumba CEO Mpumi Zikalala said the company is on the whole encouraged by Transnet’s willingness to open TFR’s freight rail network to third-party investment.
She said since the parastatal released its final Network Statement in January, some 50 parties had responded to the request-for-information process, clearly showing the level of private sector interest in sustained freight rail improvements through collaborating with Transnet.
Zikalala emphasised that Kumba’s efforts to assist TFR in maintaining the pit-to-port line is one of the reasons why the miner was in a position to grow exports despite ore-price depreciation on the global market.
