South Africa’s Transnet returns to profit

South Africa’s state-owned logistics firm Transnet on Wednesday reported a full-year profit of 5 billion rand ($296.8 million), recovering from a loss of 8.7 billion rand in the previous year, thanks to higher port and pipeline volumes.

The improvement came despite capacity problems at its flagship rail unit.

Revenue in the year to March 31 was up 1.8% at 68.5 billion rand, compared to 67.3 billion rand last year.

Transnet CFO Nonkululeko Dlamini said improvements in petroleum and container volumes as South Africa’s economy recovered from COVID-19 lockdowns had helped offset lower freight rail performance.

Large-scale theft of copper cables, insufficient maintenance, and a lack of locomotive spares have crippled Transnet’s freight rail network, used by miners to haul coal and iron ore to port.

In April, Transnet declared force majeure on coal transport contracts.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Nelson Banya, Editing by Helen Reid and Angus MacSwan)