South Africa's Transnet needs to lower the cost of transporting coal on its line leading to a port in Maputo, Mozambique, or it will jeopardize the development of an expanded export terminal at the port, an official for shipping group Grindrod said on Wednesday.
Grindrod is planning to expand its terminal at the Matola port outside Maputo to handle 20 million tonnes of coal per year. The terminal can process 6 million tonnes of coal now.
"The rate per kilometre on the Maputo line is very expensive whether they will reduce the rate is of concern because the viability of the (expansion) project would be challenged if the rates remained at the current levels," Craig Grinyer, a commercial executive at Grindrod Terminals told a coal conference in Maputo.
The rates on the Maputo line are double those Transnet charges on its main coal line to the Richards Bay Coal Terminal in South Africa, he said, but hopes that freight logistics group may reduce the rates when the volumes on the line go up along with the expansion.
"The rates really need to be addressed because it puts the project in jeopardy," he said.
Grinyer said a bankable a feasibility study for the expansion to 20 million tonnes would be completed by the middle of next year. The company may build the expanded terminal in one go, which would mean it could be commissioned by mid-2016, or it would be built in two phases, due in 2016 and 2018.
He added that Transnet was mulling the option of a private-public partnership to help it match the expanded terminal's capacity on its railway line.
Grindrod recently increased capacity at the Matola terminal to 6 million tonnes and hopes to already move at least 4 million tonnes this year, out of which 2.65 million would be coal and the remainder magnetite. This would be double what went out of that terminal in 2010.
Grinyer invited coal miners to contact the company if they are willing to export via Matola when it completes its next expansion and said Grindrod could also help export coal from miners in landlocked Botswana.
Grindrod is planning to expand its terminal at the Matola port outside Maputo to handle 20 million tonnes of coal per year. The terminal can process 6 million tonnes of coal now.
"The rate per kilometre on the Maputo line is very expensive whether they will reduce the rate is of concern because the viability of the (expansion) project would be challenged if the rates remained at the current levels," Craig Grinyer, a commercial executive at Grindrod Terminals told a coal conference in Maputo.
The rates on the Maputo line are double those Transnet charges on its main coal line to the Richards Bay Coal Terminal in South Africa, he said, but hopes that freight logistics group may reduce the rates when the volumes on the line go up along with the expansion.
"The rates really need to be addressed because it puts the project in jeopardy," he said.
Grinyer said a bankable a feasibility study for the expansion to 20 million tonnes would be completed by the middle of next year. The company may build the expanded terminal in one go, which would mean it could be commissioned by mid-2016, or it would be built in two phases, due in 2016 and 2018.
He added that Transnet was mulling the option of a private-public partnership to help it match the expanded terminal's capacity on its railway line.
Grindrod recently increased capacity at the Matola terminal to 6 million tonnes and hopes to already move at least 4 million tonnes this year, out of which 2.65 million would be coal and the remainder magnetite. This would be double what went out of that terminal in 2010.
Grinyer invited coal miners to contact the company if they are willing to export via Matola when it completes its next expansion and said Grindrod could also help export coal from miners in landlocked Botswana.