South Africa needs to urgently normalise freight operations or risk negatively impacting its minerals and metals sector.So says Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe, who has called for the urgent unblocking of logistics bottlenecks.“The mining industry relies heavily on efficient railways and ports for its export logistics,” he said. “Therefore, the logistical bottlenecks on railways and ports continue to contribute to the decline in export volumes of bulk commodities such as coal, iron ore, manganese and chrome. As a result, the country is not fully benefiting from the commodity boom of these minerals.”According to Mantashe, it is essential to normalise freight operations in the country to address the challenges faced by mineral exporters. “Transnet is making every effort to accelerate the improvement of its rail network to support the return to service of locomotives to enable the export of bulk commodities.”The country’s railways and ports have, for some time, been under tremendous pressure, struggling with old equipment and congestion issues.According to Busisiwe Mavuso, CEO of Business Leadership South Africa, the impact has been startling.“Coal exports processed through Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) last year dropped to 51 million tonnes, the lowest in 30 years and down from 70m tonnes in 2020. The most coal exported through the terminal, which can export 91m tonnes, was in 2017, with 76.4m tonnes.”While RBCT is a privately owned entity, coal is transported to the facility via Transnet Freight Rail, which struggled to deliver due to ongoing issues such as cable theft, train derailments, strikes and the unavailability of locomotives.According to Mavuso, South African mineral exporters are simply not able to take advantage of the commodity boom due to the inability to export efficiently.Describing the situation as appalling, Mavuso has called for the opening of South Africa’s freight rail system and ports – which are ranked among the worst in the world in terms of costs and waiting times – to private-public partnerships, as well as using other means to encourage private sector participation in the industry, saying it is critical to resolving the problems.She commended Transnet for its willingness to work with the private sector and more closely with business during the trying times it was facing.Mantashe has also welcomed this approach by Transnet more recently, saying the establishment of joint structures by Transnet and the Minerals Council South Africa to ensure that all possible actions are taken to speedily stabilise and improve South Africa’s operational efficiencies at the ports is a move in the right direction. “We believe this kind of cooperation between Transnet and the industry will bear fruit, as we saw at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.
