【航運和物流集團Grindrod計劃擴大其莫桑比克和南非的煤炭碼頭，以滿足快速增長的煤礦出口能力的需求，其行政總裁周二表示。由于連接煤礦與港口的鐵路基礎設施不足和經常性脫軌，南非煤礦多年來一直無法運送其所有準備出口的煤炭。】

Shipping and logistics group Grindrod plans to expand its Mozambican and South African coal terminals to meet fast-growing demand for export capacity from miners, its chief executive said on Tuesday. South African coal miners have for years been unable to ship all their coal destined for exports due to an inadequate rail infrastructure and frequent derailments on the lines linking South African mines with ports. Grindrod CEO Alan Olivier said any expansion would be subject to the availability of rail capacity linking mines in South Africa's Witbank andWaterberg regions with ports. He said Grindrod had recently expanded capacity at the Matola coal terminal to between six- and seven-million tons, out of which five-million will be for coal and two-million for magnetite. The company is now finalising the feasibility study for a further expansion. "The plan is to add up to an additional 20-million tons to that facility," Olivier told Reuters in an interview. "Our intention would be to have that (expanded) facility up and running by late 2014," he said.

Olivier said the company was already in talks with potential users of that expansion, adding the interest was "huge". He said that while the cost of processing coal at Matola terminal may not compare with much bigger facilities such as the Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT), the Matola facility would be competitive in terms of its shorter distance to the mines. Further investment in rail capacity would be required to meet that expansion, although the capital needed for that was "not enormous," Olivier added. South African logistics group Transnet has been investing heavily to improve its rail infrastructure, but much more is needed to meet demand from miners eager to ship their product to India and China . Transnet has been in talks with miners for them to help foot the bill to speed up investment in rail infrastructure, although the first such partnership has yet to materialise. "There would be no shortage of private participation in that sector if there is a project that requires and justifies putting additional trains and rolling stock in place," Olivier said.

He said the company's expansion of available coal capacity at its Richards Bay dry bulk terminal to 3.2-million tons from 1.5-million would be completed "within months." "Our next phase is to significantly grow that Richards Bay facility. We believe we can add 10-million tons or more to that facility," he said. Olivier said the additional expansion could be completed within a year once rail capacity had been secured. He said the Matola and Richards Bay expansions would target junior miners, unable to get export capacity through RBCT. Olivier said Grindrod had no interest in the proposed Transkalahari line proposed by miners to link up coal mines in South Africa and Botswana with the port at Walvis Bay in Namibia . "The Transkalahari line is not practical. If you look at the geography, if you look at the costs, the logical outlet is to the east, not to the west," he said.

來源：MiningWeekly