Bloomberg quoted Mr Raymond Chirwa COO of Richards Bay Coal Terminal as saying that demand for coal shipped from Richards Bay Coal Terminal is strong enough to merit growth beyond an expansion now in progress.

Mr Chirwa, in a speech at a McCloskey Coal conference in Cape Town, said that an increase to annual capacity of 110 million tonnes is possible. He added that while no decisions have been made on further growth, the estimate is an example of what may be possible.

He said that the expansion now under way will increase the terminal’s capacity to 91 million tonnes a year when completed in July. Coal producers made requests for allocations under the plan that was about 10 million tonnes higher.

It may be noted that more than a quarter of Europe’s energy coal is shipped from the terminal. Shipments from Richards Bay fell to 61.8 million tonnes in 2008 a record 69.2 million tonnes in 2005.

(Sourced from www.bloomberg.net)