Ramos spells out Spoornet’s growth targets

CLIVE EMDON SPOORNET IS targeting a 27% increase in the rail transportation of coal and iron ore within five years. In its recently-released annual report, Transnet revealed that Spoornet would spend R31.5bn on infrastructure development over the next five years of which a third would be devoted to infrastructure for coal (R8.9bn) and iron ore (R2.7bn) and a third (R10.8bn) to general freight. “Spoornet remains both our biggest challenge and our greatest opportunity,” CEO Maria Ramos said when she announced the shedding of South African Airways and nine other companies. Earlier Ramos told the Parliamentary portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises that Transnet aimed to improve Spoornet’s profitability by about R2 billion over the next 5 years through operational efficiencies and asset upgrades. The aim was to reduce costs and increase volumes. The current transport of 28 million tons of iron ore would be increased by 32% to 41 million tons in the next five years and the current 67 million tons of coal by 22% to 86 million tons by 2009. In addition, Spoornet plans an increase in the volume of general freight by 3% to 88 million tons over the short term, with a strategy to increase this significantly within five years.