Thermal Coal

WorldWatch investigation has shown that more than a quarter of western Europe's thermal coal is shipped from Richards Bay, which reported total shipments of 66.5 million tons last year. Exports through October this year were 53.8 million tons, little changed from a year earlier.

November's volumes should total about 5.6 million tons, from 6.48 million tons a year earlier.

However Derailments of trains run by Spoornet, the state rail operator that delivers coal to the port, and bad weather have hampered shipments...

Turnover times for ships at the port have been slowed by equipment shortages at the government's National Port Authority.

A helicopter used to transfer pilots to ships was replaced in September this year after crashing in 2005. In the interim pilots have been transferred by boat, a process that can take four to six hours, instead of the 90 minutes to 2 hours by helicopter. The helicopter service is no longer operating at night. While Richards Bay is the world's biggest coal-export terminal, Australia's Newcastle port ships more of the fuel from two terminals. South Africa is the world's third-biggest thermal coal exporter after Australia and Indonesia.