Johannesburg - State-run freight infrastructure and
logistics group Transnet said it was open to working with private companies to
accelerate its expansion plan but would be cautious about any deals it signs.
South African coal exporters have been unable to ship all of
their product due to inadequate infrastructure on the rail lines leading to the
Richards Bay Coal Terminal and have said they are willing to pitch in to boost
the Transnet expansion.
Transnet and the private sector have been discussing
possible deals for years, and the industry had been hoping that some agreements
could be made this year under new leadership. But Chief Executive Officer Brian
Molefe on Monday dampened expectations that anything would happen soon, saying
many such deals had turned out to be what he termed as “disasters”.
“We mustn’t be romantic about private sector participation
... we are not violently opposed to that, but we will consider them case by
case and where opportunities arise,” he said.
Coal producers in South Africa, including Anglo American
[JSE:AGL], BHP Billiton [JSE:BIL], Exxaro Resources [JSE:EXX], Optimum Coal and Xstrata,
have been eager to export more coal to meet rising demand from India and China
but have been limited by infrastructure bottlenecks.
Molefe said possible deals could include a partnership in
which a private player would build and operate a line, or Transnet could give
privately owned locomotives and wagons access to its rail lines or lease them.
The group said it would spend R110.6bn on capital
investments in the next five years and would borrow over R25bn over the same
period to help fund the investment and to redeem existing loans.
The company said it had transported 62.2 million tons of
export coal during the financial year, far below the expanded capacity at RBCT
of 91 million tons. Iron ore exports stood at 46.2 million tons during the
12-month period.
Transnet plans to raise capacity on the coal export line to
81 million tons by 2015 and for iron to 60.7 million by 2014.
The group is studying the possibility of freeing up some 14
million tons of capacity on the coal line by moving non-coal cargo to a new
line via Swaziland in two to three years.
Transnet said its earnings before interest, tax,
depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the year to end-March rose to
R15.8bn from R14.4bn a year earlier, boosted by higher volumes.
The state company plans to double the size of its domestic
medium-term note programme to R60bn to help fund its 2012 capital expenditure.
It also plans to speed up the repayment of its expensive T18 bond, which is due
to mature in 2018.