RICHARDS BAY (miningweekly.com) – South Africa’s Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) in KwaZulu-Natal exported 52.08-million tons of coal in 2024, up on the 47.21-million tons of 2023, which was the lowest since 1992.

RBCT’s budgeted target for this year is 55-million tons on a contracted rate of 60-million tons.

Once again, most of the coal – 84.5% of it, or 43.99-million tons – was exported to Asia, with 25-million tons going to India and 2.37-million tons to Pakistan.

The Europe offtake was 4.8%, through mainly Netherlands and Germany. Morocco and Mauritius were the main offtakers under the Africa heading, and the 3.9% to the Middle East went mainly to the United Arab Emirates and Israel.

“Operations remained reliable and efficient, with a positive trend in volumes,” RBCT CEO Alan Waller told a media briefing attended by Mining Weekly. Prestigious for South Africa is that Waller has been elected chairperson of the International Coal Export Terminal Operators Association, CETOA.

In 2017, when the private-sector terminal exported a record 76.47-million tons of coal on to the 907 ships that called at the terminal in that year, RBCT was chosen as the Global Ports Forum Bulk Terminal of the Year.

In close collaboration with Transnet, RBCT is edging forward promisingly amid the State-owned rail enterprise managing to rail 51.91-million tons to it in 2024.

RBCT’s mutual cooperation agreement with Transnet, which was signed in November 2023, is bearing good fruit.

The mutual cooperation agreement involves Transnet and RBCT jointly exploring opportunities for joint investments in rolling stock assets and infrastructure to uplift performance by South Africa’s coal industry in the north corridor.

Collaborative RBCT, Transnet and Rapid Rail Police effort has been under way to cut the export cycle time on certain aspects of the corridor and to decrease loading and offloading time of the coal received from 69 South Africa collieries.

Copper cables are routinely targeted because of copper’s monetary value on the scrap metal market, and the changeout plan to aluminium conductor steel reinforced, or ACSR, has advanced well.

RBCT began in 1976 with an export capacity of 12-million tons a year and now has a design capacity to export 91-million tons a year,

It has grown into a technologically advanced, 24-hour primary source of export coal leaving South Africa, using its 276 ha site which has a quay that is 2.2 km long. It has six berths, four shiploaders and a stockyard capacity of 8.2-million tons.

With four shiploaders, RBCT can process 900 vessels a year to serve global markets.

RBCT’s coal-exporting parties are Glencore, African Rainbow Minerals, Sasol, Seriti, Thungela, Exxaro, Kangra, Liberty Coal, South Dunes, Quattro Junior Miners, Black Royalty Minerals, Tumela Coal Mines, South African Coal Mine Holdings and Umcebo Mining.