Transnet gives SA manganese sector lift after adding 1Mt in additional train capacity

Freight Train

SOUTH African transport and logistics utility, Transnet, had expanded manganese exportation capacity by a million tons a year following increases in wagons – enough to add some R1bn in annual economic value.

In an interview with BusinessLive, acting CEO of Transnet Freight Rail (TFR), Lloyd Tobias, said manganese export capacity would be lifted to 5.3 million tons (Mt) via Saldanha Bay additional nine million tons in capacity sent through Port Elizabeth.

But in addition to higher manganese exports, Transnet is also investigating opening capacity for zinc exports which will be made available through new mine production in the Northern Cape by Orion Minerals and Vedanta. Tobias told BusinessLive that Transnet was in talks with the two about options to move zinc on rail.

The additional capacity is being made possible after Transnet first increased the number of wagons on the heavy-haul line to Saldanha, South Africa’s iron-ore export route, to 375 wagons of 63 tonnes capacity each. In so doing, Transnet exceeded its own record of 342 wagons and set a new world record, the state-owned company said.

The train is almost 4km long and uses sets of locomotives in the front, middle and end of the string of wagons in a carefully choreographed braking and acceleration sequence to cater for parts of the train that are going uphill, while others have crested and are on the downhill run, said BusinessLive.

Transnet will now move 23,625 tonnes of manganese per train, up from the 19,656 tonnes on the 312 wagons it normally used for manganese exports.

Seven slots a week on the 861km long Sishen-to-Saldanha line are reserved for manganese and 42 slots for iron ore, said BusinessLive.