THE UPGRADED new industrial harbour at Coega outside Port Elizabeth received a major boost recently when Transnet m.d. Saki Macozoma announced that Transnet was considering upgrading the railway from Sishen to Port Elizabeth.
The existing ore line from Sishen to Saldanha has now reached beyond its capacity and needs further upgrading. However, Transnet has indicated it is prepared to consider rerouting some of this traffic to the Eastern Cape as an alternative to upgrading the Saldanha line. The result of this will be to give much impetus to the new port at Coega, which could make it economically viable from that traffic alone.
When Iscor originally announced the Sishen development in the seventies there was strong pressure from Port Elizabeth to create a new harbour at St Croix (opposite Coega) to handle the iron ore exports. Much of today's Coega proposals are based on that original work. Political pressures however saw a new line being built through arid country across the North Western Cape to a new port at Saldanha. The line was subsequently taken over from Iscor by Spoornet.
Macozoma said that he had commissioned a study to compare costs between upgrading the PE - Sishen line and making improvements between Saldanha and Sishen. The PE/Coega alternative would have the advantage of being at least two days closer in sailing time to the Far East.
