Shipments from Richards Bay Coal Terminal, Africa’s largest export terminal for the fuel, fell 22% in May from a year earlier after railway maintenance work and a decline in coal prices.

As per report, the terminal shipped 3.57 million tonnes compared with 4.57 million tonnes a year earlier and 4.81 million tonnes in the previous month. Stocks rose to 4.41 million tonnes at the end of May from 3.63 million tonnes in April.

State owned Transnet Limited is carrying out maintenance on its Richards Bay railroad line the main feed to the terminal on South Africa’s east coast, from May 23rd to June 11th 2011.

According to data by Hampshire based IHS McCloskey, Terminal owners including Anglo American Plc, BHP Billiton Limited and Xstrata Plc saw coal prices decline 1.6% to average USD 121.29 per tonne in May from USD 123.25 in April.

RBCT received 4.41 million tonnes in May when 560 trains delivered coal. The terminal shipped 63.4 million tonnes in 2010 when it finished an expansion of capacity to 91 million tonnes.

(Sourced from Bloomberg)