South Africa has allowed 11 private firms to operate trains on the country’s freight rail network, the state company that manages the network said on Wednesday, part of a government drive to boost freight volumes and lift economic growth.
- Transnet said in a statement that the private companies would operate on five strategic rail corridors, serving sectors including coal, manganese, containers, fuel and general freight.
- The companies are ARC South Africa, The Railway Corporation, TLD Marine, MENAR, Sharp Logistics, Barberry, Grindrod, Minrail, ​IRACEMA, Motheo Logistics and Interlinks.
- South Africa is trying to address logistics bottlenecks that have stifled commodities exports in Africa’s biggest economy.
- The private companies are expected to introduce an additional 24 million tons of freight capacity to the network, with the potential to scale to 52 million tons over the next five years, Transnet said.
- Some of the companies are aiming to start operations this year and the others next year.
- South Africa’s government is pushing to increase annual rail volumes from approximately 180 million metric tons to 250 million tons by 2030.