SA’s bulk exports rise a far more modest 4.3% year on year in February after huge increase in January
SA’s bulk export volumes rose 4.3% year on year in February to 15.5-million tonnes, from a revised 54.6% (88.8%) surge in January 2018 to a record 20.8-million tonnes (25.4-million tonnes), data from the Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) showed on Monday.TNPA said there was an error in the formula calculation for iron ore in January, which had been corrected in February. Bulk exports excluding Saldanha were up 25.6% in the first two months of this year, to 21-million tonnes.In January bulk exports out of Richards Bay, which are mostly coal, jumped 28.6% to 9-million tonnes, while bulk exports out of Saldanha, which are mostly iron ore, lifted a massive 90.6% to a revised 10.2-million tonnes (14.8-million tonnes).This may in part be due to the shift in the Lunar New Year from January in 2017 to February in 2018, because Chinese steel producers front-loaded their February iron ore and coal imports into January, as steel-production curbs — which were imposed during the winter mo...
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