APA-Johannesburg (South Africa) South Africa’s state-owned rail and ports company Transnet has lost US$84 million in the six months to 30 September this year amid declining business volumes, the firm has disclosed.
According to Transnet on Friday, the losses were incurred due to declining rail, port and pipeline volumes.
The logistics firm said lower volumes, especially at Transnet freight rail, were also impacted by various operational challenges such as collisions and community unrest on the coal line — and equipment challenges as well as derailments, cable theft and power outages.
Challenges such as rail volumes were down by 7.2 percent, petroleum was also down by 7.2 percent, and container volumes were down by 1.8 percent, Transnet said.
At the same time, net operating expenses increased by 9.5 percent to just over US$1.32 million due mainly to increased labour costs, electricity tariff increases, and security, it added.
However, the parastatal said it remained positive about various rail and port volume improvement initiatives it was implementing to rescue the company from its current financial woes.
The company said it has prioritised the resolution of the challenges at the congested ports, with several short-term interventions in place at the port of Durban to ease the situation there.
Due to this, the company said it expected improvements in its performance as its recovery plan gained momentum.
NM/jn/APA