TNPA to expand Richards Bay port for bulk exports

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.