TRANSNET Freight Rail’s manganese export line between Hotazel and Port Elizabeth reached a record 9,780,293 million tons in the 2022/23 financial year, attributed to concerted efforts from TFR’s Cape Corridor to increase capacity and grow volumes.
“We are delighted with the success of the Cape Corridor and the commitment that has been shown by our employees, stakeholders and customers. We have more than doubled our Corridor’s total capacity, increasing progressively from 4.9 million tons in 2012 to 9.7 million tons in 2023,” Transnet Freight Rail said.
TFR said these efforts were driven by their commitment to deliver value and respond to the needs of customers. “Working in tandem with our customers to jointly realise expansion efforts, customers have shown their commitment to growing manganese volumes by installing capacity in their facilities to reduce loading times. We are working closely with customers for continuous improvement and phased implementation of further growth plans to meet demand.”
TFR said it had made investments to gradually increase its manganese volumes performance through the following:
CAPEX projects
• Transnet’s investment in rail infrastructure capacity between Kimberley and De Aar, at a cost of R2.2 billion, a project which was completed in 2017.
• To protect the network, new weigh-in-motion weighbridges were been installed at Vlermuislaagte and Postmasburg.
• The Witloop and Vlermuislaagte substations are being upgraded to cater for increased power demand.
An increase in slot capacity:
• Improvement in the number of slots to run 104 wagon export manganese trains from 16 in 2012 to the current 42. This has been achieved through close collaboration with the OCC service design team, rail network team and operations efficiency teams.
Rolling stock capacity
• To enable growth, a major investment was made into the CR-17 wagons as well as the 23E dual voltage electric locomotives used on the corridor.
Employees
• To enable the efficient execution of the increased trains the staff complement across the PE manganese export line was increased, including mainline crew, yard officials and rail network.
More about the manganese corridor
The 1 100km electrified line runs from Hotazel in the Northern Cape, where loaded trains of 104 wagons cycle down to the Port of Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape for offloading and empties return to the mines for loading.
A combination of electric locomotives (20E, 23E) provides the tractive power to haul the the trains over three sections of the rail network: Hotazel-Kimberley, Kimberley-De Aar and De Aar-Port Elizabeth.
The Kimberley-De Aar section was enhanced in 2017, with 132km of 230km upgraded to a double line capacity and an updated signalling system.
