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RBCT could justify 100mty plus Posted: Fri, 01 Feb 2008 [miningmx.com] -- THE Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) could justify further expansions to export at annual levels greater than 100 million tonnes provided the coal could be railed to the port. The terminal currently has the capacity to export 76 million tonnes/year and expects to have completed its Phase Five expansion programme by the first half of next year which will give it an annual throughput capacity of 91 million tonnes. That’s the conclusion of RBCT chairman Kuseni Dlamini. His assessment of the level of demand from coal companies currently shut out of the export market is backed up by Mhlatuze Bay Coal director Bill Lamont. Mhlatuze is the organisation which co-ordinates exports by 18 small, BEE coal companies which currently export four million tonnes/year of coal through the RBCT in terms of its “Quattro” scheme. Both executives were addressing the McCloskey South African coal export conference being held in Cape Town. Lamont told delegates that each of the 18 Quattro members had requested additional export allocations for the 2008/2009 financial year beginning on April 1 while another nine companies had applied to join the Quattro scheme. “In total, the demand to export through the Quattro scheme for 2008/2009 amounted to nine million tonnes compared with the available four million. Over the next five years indications are this demand will rise to 13 million tonnes/year. There’s a huge gap between what is being asked for and what’s available,” he said. Dlamini told the conference that coal exporters who met the qualification requirements to export in terms of the Phase Five expansion - but which were unsuccessful - controlled coal sales reserves totalling 842 million tonnes and had offered to export at a rate of 10 million tonnes/year. He added that over the past ten years the market for sea-borne thermal coal had risen by an average of 8% annually but South African exports had grown by only 2% annually. Click Here to subscribe to our daily newsletter
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