Coal exports from Richards Bay rise as Transnet rail turnaround continues

Coal exports from the Richards Bay Coal Terminal in KwaZulu-Natal rose by 11% last year as Transnet's freight rail performance improved.

More than 57 million metric tons were exported in 2025, the highest level in four years.

While coal shipments are still far below the 76 million tonnes recorded in 2017, 11% is a huge improvement, notes Jan Havenga who is Professor of Logistics at Stellenbosch University (SU).

He recalls the lowest point in terms of local coal exports was reached in 2022, at a time when the coal price was high at the start of the current conflict in Ukraine.

At the beginning of 2023, the Minerals Council reported that South Africa was losing over R20 billion in coal exports due to Transnet inefficiencies.

Asked what has led to the steady improvement since then, Prof. Havenga highlights the role of the private sector and the new leadership at the state-owned logistics company.

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"Initially it was the Minerals Council, the people from business, approaching the President and the National Logistics Crisis Committee (NLCC) being informed, with some work being done in the private sector to really help."

"Transnet had lost about a third of the biggest cash cow they had and the new leadership had to claw back from there."

As Havenga puts it, in the almost two years since her appointment, Michelle Phillips and her team initially did the obvious things necessary to turn the entity around, and are now also "doing really clever and interesting stuff".

"They're not back to optimum numbers yet, but they've got coal exports back up to nearly 60 million tonnes per annum - another 15 million or so to go, and for that some major work's going to be required."

To hear more about how the Transnet turnaround is boosting our coal exports, listen to the interview audio at the top of the article