PLANS FOR a sized coal terminal at Richards Bay are once again back on the agenda, with McPhails beginning to firm up their proposals for this facility.
At present no sized coal is handled at the port, and all such shipments go through Rennies Bluff Mechanical Appliances (BMA) in Durban, which handles upwards of a million tons per year on behalf of the Independent Coal Producers.
The project earmarked for Richards Bay anticipates a terminal capable of handling 4 million tons of sized coal each year with room for expansion up to 8 million tons. A site behind Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) has been identified and an initial EIA was recently completed. A more detailed EIA will be necessary if the go-ahead is given.
One of the problems facing this project is that of getting sized coal to the port. Port manager Glen Martin told FTW that this would not present a problem for Spoornet, the intention apparently being to bring 100-wagon loads of sized coal at a time together with 100 wagons of steam coal for RBCT. However, a spokesman for Spoornet later confirmed this did in fact present some problems for the rail operator, although he wasn't able to specify exactly what this was. Several years ago when Iscor imported coking coal through Richards Bay this did cause some hiccups with the scheduled traffic and was then stopped.
In the meantime it is reported that McPhails will be holding talks with Rennies BMA during hte coming week.
The building of a sized coal terminal at Richards Bay has major ramifications for Durban, assuming that the BMA would then stop handling sized coal, as this would free considerable land and wharfside at Durban, at a time when Portnet is anxiously trying to identify space there for extra container handling. One of the various proposals was that the navy vacates Salisbury Island and moves to the BMA site. With the Richards Bay development this may now become feasible.
