South Africa continues to rely on the export of unbeneficiated minerals to balance its books. Motor vehicles, which are the sixth-biggest export earner, are the lone manufactured category in the list of top 10 export commodities for the year to April.
According to South African Revenue Service figures the top export earner in the first four months of the year was gold. The value declared to customs was just over R25 billion. However, the total weight was only 51.5 tons, which means the main earnings for the logistics industry in this sector is on the transport of inputs rather than the export items. Second-biggest export earner, and by far the biggest in terms of freight carried, was coal with a customs value of R23.2 billion and a mass of 26 million tons. Next was the export of manganese in its various forms, at just under six million tons with a customs value of R14.5 bn.
The following two categories are different grades of iron ore with a total value of around R24 billion and volume of 15 million tons. Vehicle exports in sixth place added R9.6bn (or around 7.3%) to the country’s total export earnings of R125 bn. A total of 33 052 vehicles were exported, putting the declared value at R288 305 per vehicle on average. The final four places are taken by chrome ore (R8.7 bn and 4.4 million tons); platinum (R8 bn and 25 tons); “other” gold, platinum, diamonds, jewellery and precious metals (R6.4 bn and 19 tons); and iron ore and concentrates (R6 bn) and 7.7 million tons). Manganese exports earned R8.5 bn more than iron ore.
With manganese now earning R2.44 a kilogram compared to 77 cents/kg for iron ore, government and its entities have given priority to manganese, with the port of Port Elizabeth now essentially being converted to a manganese export facility. In addition to the manganese ore berth, vessels are being loaded from the container and breakbulk berths.
Manganese is also being exported out of Saldanha Bay, which was previously dedicated to iron ore, as well as Durban.
