Bulk exports jump, while uptick in maize and mining bode well for future figures
Bulk exports out of Saldanha for May, which are mostly iron ore, jumped 42.5% to 6.8-million tonnes
Bulk exports rose 10.9% in the year to the end of May, to 15.1-million tonnes, Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) said on Thursday. The data shows that the South African economy will get a boost from a record maize harvest and a recovery in mining production. The maize harvest will double from 2016 to a record 15.6-million tonnes with an exportable surplus of about 3-million tonnes, while mining production has increased 5.9% from a 5.0% decline in 2016. Bulk exports out of Saldanha for May, which are mostly iron ore, jumped 42.5% to 6.8-million tonnes, while bulk exports out of Richards Bay — mostly coal — fell 8.6% to 7.0-million. Bulk exports from other ports, which export bulk agricultural goods such as grains and sugar, rose 9.8% to 1.3-million tonnes. In the first five months of 2017, bulk export volumes grew 2.9% year on year. The record annual increase in this century was 9.0% set in 2010.
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