Exporters count the costs of Saldanha shut-down

RAY SMUTS
PARASTATAL Transnet remained tight-lipped at week’s end about the reason behind the breakdown of a fairly new loader at Saldanha, grinding to a halt all export shipments from South Africa’s only iron ore port. The loader gave in on Wednesday September 27, while the second and only other loader, was out of commission for scheduled maintenance. Ironically, this is much the same scenario that befell Cape Town’s Koeberg nuclear power station earlier in the year when one nuclear reactor conked in due to a ‘renegade’ loose bolt while the other was under maintenance, plunging commerce, industry and domestic consumers into darkness, often at unspecified times, and leading to millions of rands in lost production. Transnet has mounted an investigation into the cause of the Saldanha breakdown, assisted by the equipment developer and manufacturer, Thyssen-Krupp, while also consulting with key iron ore export clients to determine the consequences of the delay on activities and export schedules. The Kumba Resources, the port’s major exporter, which shipped 11.2 million tons of ore in the first six months of this year, reports South African Port Operations (Sapo) is working around the clock to return the second loader to operation, but the overall delay could be between two and three weeks. Saldanha’s port engineer, Magenthran Ruthenavelu, told FTW on Friday that no loading had taken place since the breakdown three days earlier and that two vessels had to be removed from their berths.