[miningmx.com] – RICHARDS Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT), South Africa’s 91 million tonne/year coal export facility, is to spend R1.34bn replacing 36-year old heavy machinery at its phase one facility.
Mike Teke, chairman of RBCT, said the investment decision was a signal of the South African coal industry’s confidence that internationally traded prices would return to health over the long-term.
“We believe this industry will recover and when it recovers, we hope we’ll be ready with the machine replacement,” he said at an unveiling function in Richards Bay, KwaZulu-Natal province.
The programme is also a necessity, however, as some of the heavy machinery, including shiploaders and stacker-reclaimers, is nearing the end of its productive life having been first commissioned in 1976.
“This replacement is for the first phase machinery, but we have done an assessment for our machinery up until the RBCT lease expires in 2038 and there’s no other replacements that are required,” said Nosipho Siwisa-Damasane, CEO of RBCT.
Funding required for the replacement programme will be provided by South African bank, Rand Merchant Bank which has agreed a facility loan agreement underwritten by RBCT shareholders including Glencore, Anglo American, and South32.
RBCT CFO, Alan Waller, acknowledged that there would be an impact on RBCT tariffs as a result of the investment, but the effects of the increases would diminish over time as RBCT lifted its volumes. The terminal had targeted exports of 74 million tonnes in its current financial year which ends December 31 rising to 77mt a year later.
In terms of the programme, RBCT will replace two 6,000 tonne per hour (tph) rail-mounted stacker reclaimers and two 10,000 tph rail-mounted shiploaders. There would also be a reconfiguration of the electrical sub-station and a new laboratory.
Of the R1.34bn spent on the project, roughly 57% – equal to R768m – which some R140m of that spent in Richards Bay.
