High rail rates scare off Maputo customers

SPOORNET AND its Mozambican counterpart will have to reduce their charges on the Maputo corridor rail route if it is to attract business through the port of Maputo. This has emerged from the latest Gold Fields Quarterly results, in which it is reported that high transport rates on the Maputo Corridor rail link, were among the factors affecting the performance of the group's new Cosmos Coal project. Chairman Barbara Day says during the quarter we also made use of the Matola Terminal at Maputo but the rail rates on both sides of the border have been set at such a high level to make this business unprofitable.
Much as we would like to support both the South African and Mozambican governments' endeavours to encourage business to make use of the Maputo Corridor, GFC will have no alternative but to withdraw from railing its coal on this route unless prompt action is taken to reduce the rates to acceptable levels.
We have entered negotiations to resolve this problem as a matter of urgency.
Gold Fields says in its report that it had also experienced export constraints at the alternative Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT).
By Ed Richardson