Manganese exporters face severe port constraints

The South African manganese industry will face capacity constraints at the ports between 2015 and 2017, before the deep-sea port of Ngqura is fully operational, Iain Geldart, managing director at Durban port operator, Bulk Connections, warned delegates at a Metal Bulletin conference in Johannesburg recently. He showed a slide indicating capacity for manganese at the Eastern Cape port would increase from 2018 when manganese shipping shifts from Port Elizabeth port to the deep-sea port of Ngqura. At the Durban port he pegged capacity around 4 million tpy for manganese if some capacity was taken away from pellets or coal and reallocated to manganese. “This could increase capacity sharply,” Geldart noted. However, he was worried about the gap between 2015 and 2017 which would probably be bigger than most projections. He told delegates that Bulk Connections was doing what it could to increase Durban port’s capacity. “Bulk Connections is a substantial player in the manganese market. We will get bigger,” he said. He added that the time for public-private partnerships was “absolutely” right. “Transnet National Ports Authority said it would tender out all facilities,” he said. “The platform has changed and we will see a lot more publicprivate partnerships in the near future.”