Transit cargo buoys Swazi rail

In the face of economic challenges impacting the movement of local cargo, Swaziland Railway can find solace in the country’s strategic geographic position that requires neighbouring countries to ship cargo through its rail system. “90% of our transit cargo comes from South Africa. Altogether 70% of our cargo volumes come from transit traffic,” Sive Manana, corporate communications specialist for Swaziland Railway, told FTW. “Minerals from South Africa make up the bulk of transit traffic,” added Stephenson Ngubane, the company CEO. The iron ore mining operation that in 2013 returned Swaziland Railway to its origin as a shipper of iron ore 50 years ago, was liquidated on 31 January 2015, leaving millions of rand in debts owed to its road and rail freight haulers. The termination on 31 December 2014 of Swaziland’s participation in the US trade initiative, the African Growth and Opportunities Act (Agoa), devastated Swaziland’s textile industry built to take advantage of duty-free access by Swazi products into the American market. However, the subsequent shuttering of textile firms affected Swaziland Railway less than road freight operators. “This has affected Swaziland Railway like most transport operators, but a lot of players in (the textile) industry use road transport because of timeline problems,” said Manana. “We are still moving largely the same commodities that we were moving last year, with the exception of iron ore.” On average four million metric tonnes of cargo are moved through Swazi’s rail system yearly. Containerised cargo is handled at the Inland Container Depot or so-called dry port in Matsapha, where 3m, 6m and 12m containers are loaded and offloaded. Upgrades carried out at the port in 2002 have seen a rise in traffic from 2500 TEUs annually to 10 000 today. The facility is getting crowded and will likely see further expansion. This expansion will become urgent with the opening of the Lothair Link, a joint project with Transnet Freight Rail that will substantially increase cargo traffic.