CAPE TOWN: South Africa’s bulk export volumes soared by 27.4 percent year-on-year in March to 14 million tons, according to Transnet National Ports Authority.
This massive increase was in part due to base effects, as the 861km rail link between Sishen and Saldanha was closed for some days in March 2016 for maintenance.
This meant that bulk exports out of Saldanha, which are mostly iron ore, almost doubled (up 95.3percent year-on-year) to 5,750,806 tons in March 2017.
Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) also carried out maintenance on the rail link between the Mpumalanga coal mines and the coal export terminal of Richards Coal Bay Terminal.
This used to be carried out in May of each year, but following negotiations between TFR and the coal miners that has been moved to July as from 2016.
Richards Bay Coal Terminal used to supply monthly operational statistics, which detailed exports destinations, amount of coal exported and amount of coal received as well as the amount of coal in the stockpile, but ceased to do this.
That is why economists are finding it more difficult to track economic performance in South Africa in a timeous manner and they may be under-estimating the dynamism of the South African economy.
Bulk exports out of Richards Bay, which are mostly coal, only increased by 1.1 percent year-on-year in March to 7,285,094 tons.
In April 2016 Richards Bay exported 8,562,516 tons, so one should expect a yera-on-year decline in April 2017 as exports have trended just above 7 million tons for the past three months.
Without stock pile data one cannot be sure if that is due to lack of demand or lower production.
