Transnet National Ports
Authority (TNPA) is set to
begin major expansion of
Richards Bay port in mid-2015.
This will increase the port’s
capacity for bulk commodities,
including chrome ore, ferrochrome
and manganese ore, by
more than 20 million tpy.
The company is busy with
the feasibility study for the
project, Sudesh Maharaj,
programme director for
Transnet’s
Richards Bay
expansion
programme,
told delegates
at Metal
Bulletin’s
South African Chromite
Conference last week.
“We hope to start
construction by June 2015, and
hopefully complete by 2020,”
he said, adding that the project
would give the port 6 million
tpy chrome ore capacity by
2018, leading to a 134%
increase in capacity at the port
for this bulk commodity.
Capacity at the port for
ferro-chrome is set to grow to
3.7 million tpy by 2025.
The project will also include
capacity for manganese ore,
with Transnet planning for 1.3
million tpy by 2025. There are
plans to expand manganese ore
capacity to 2.2 million tpy by
2040, Maharaj said.
The expansion project has an
estimated capital expenditure
value of R50-60 billion and
is part of the government’s
R300 billion
infrastructure
expansion
plan until the
end of this
decade.
Outside the
port, Transnet is set to build
a rail link from the Waterberg
region to Rustenburg, where
the bulk of the chrome mines
are, and then from Rustenburg
to Richards Bay.
“At Transnet we have an
integrated port and rail
approach,” Nozipho Mdawe,
general manager for mineral
mining and chrome business
unit at Transnet, said.
“We are integrating the
rail capacity with the port
development and want to
increase the rail capacity to
Richard Bay,” she said.
At the same time, Maharaj
is involved in a study to
possibly set up a second coal
terminal at the Richards Bay
port that would aim to service
junior miners and black
economic empowered (BEE)
companies. This project is
still being studied and he
noted that it might not
necessarily happen.
CAPTION
Integrating rail and port development.
