Exxaro, the largest supplier of coal to Eskom, suffered about R5bn in lost export sales due to bottlenecks in South Africa’s rail network, according to Business Day.
Four million tonnes of coal, held up at its mines because of problems on the rail network, could have brought in an extra R5bn in export sales.
Exxaro’s coal production volumes fell by 10% and exports by more than a third, underscoring the effect of dysfunction at Transnet. Transnet is struggling with a shortage of locomotives due to vandalism and cable theft, which often lead to derailments.
Sakkie Swanepoel, the group manager of marketing and logistics, said it was unlikely that there would be any meaningful improvements in the short term.
‘Even though we remain hopeful, we remain only cautiously optimistic and we have to be level-headed in our outlook with the expectation being that exports for this year will be more or less at the same level as last year.’
While Exxaro has increasingly used road transport, Swanepoel said this does not help solve the ‘ultimate constraint of how much [it] can get out via the ports’.
Other companies that have cited Transnet as one of the reasons for not fully taking advantage of higher commodity prices include Sasol, Kumba Iron Ore and Thungela Resources.
Exxaro stated that it doesn’t yet understand what the full impact will be of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but it is likely to trigger a renewed energy crisis in the EU and it could see countries in the region speed up initiatives to diversify away from their reliance on Russian gas.