https://www.miningweekly.com

South Africa's iron-ore railway to be shut down for annual maintenance

12th September 2018

By: Reuters

  

Font size: - +

The main railway line along South Africa's iron-ore corridor will be shut down for annual maintenance from September 26 to October 2, State-owned freight logistics firm Transnet said on Wednesday.

The railway line that stretches up to 861 km (534 miles) from iron-ore mines at Sishen in the Northern Cape to the Saldanha port in the Western Cape is South Africa's main link for iron-ore exports.

"There will be no traffic flowing on the line during this period as this is a pre-planned exercise following consultations with customers," Transnet's Freight Rail unit said in a statement.

The maintenance work will involve replacing old and obsolete equipment as part of plans to ramp up capacity on the line, Transnet said.

Railed iron ore, sourced mainly from Kumba mines, totalled 57.2-million tonnes last year versus a target of 60-million tonnes as mine production and other technical problems hurt rail volumes, the logistics firm said.

Kumba reported a sharp drop in its interim earnings in July, and flagged problems with the rail network, which like other state-run sectors of the economy has suffered from mismanagement and underinvestment.

Edited by Reuters

Comments

The functionality you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.

If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.

If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.

For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION