State-owned logistics and freight firm Transnet will pocket a 30 billion rand ($2 billion) loan from the China Development Bank to improve its aging train fleet, its acting chief executive said. Siyabonga Gama told a news conference on sidelines of World Economic Forum for Africa in Cape Town that 18 billion rand of the loan had already been transferred to the state utility. "The repayment of the loan is 15 years with a grace period of four-and-a-half years while the locomotives are under construction," Gama said Transnet said it had now secured 92 percent of the 50 billion rand required for its 1,062 locomotive build program, which it says will help the company grow its volumes to 350 million tons from 210 million tons in the next seven years. Barclays Africa, Investec, Standard Bank , Old Mutual and Export Development Bank are some of the other funders of the improvement project, which will focus on building new infrastructure in harbor city Durban as well as inland capital Pretoria. Transnet plans to invest over 300 billion rand by 2019 to expand the railways, ports and pipelines that handle commodities in Africa's most advanced economy. (Reuters)