South Africa is a major exporter of coal to power stations in Europe and Asia, but coal exporters have criticised Transnet in the past for its failure to transport enough coal to the terminal due to bottlenecks on the rail line.
Transnet director for planning (ports) David Stromberg, reiterated that private sector participation in expanding infrastructure would be needed as South Africa exports of coal and iron ore continue to rise.
"We are currently doing a study, which should be finished towards the end of this year," Stromberg told a ferro alloys conference in Johannesburg.
"Our future plans for Richards Bay (rail corridor) is to expand... beyond 81 million tonnes for coal," Stromberg said.
Transnet has been investing heavily in new and improved infrastructure, but is still far from meeting an expanded annual capacity at the RBCT of 91 million tonnes.
South Africa exported 61 million tonnes of coal last year, and Transnet said it could ship up to 65 million tonnes this year, despite a three-week strike that crippled ports and railways in May.
Stromberg said Transnet's expansion plans also included purchasing the old Durban airport from Airports Company of South Africa in order to expand the port of Durban and to increase handling capacity at its ports to handle larger vessels.
Stromberg said the company would increase capacity for iron ore exports at Saldanha port to 80 million tonnes a year and was also studying ways to build a 12 million tons per year manganese terminal.
Transnet is currently expanding the capacity on its iron ore line to 60 million tonnes from the current 44.7 million tons.
Companies in the coal sector include Anglo American , Xstrata , Optimum Coal and Exxaro. (Reuters)
