However, executive chairman Kuseni Dlamini is nonplussed.The 2005 figure, he emphasises,was an alltime record and the slight decrease last year was purely the result of a slight reduction in the size of consignments being imported by the Indian market, which was in turn a reaction to rising freight rates. “For this year, we expect to export in line with our terminal capacity, which is 72m tonnes,” says Mr Dlamini.

Despite the massive amounts of coal being despatched from the quayside, vessel queuing is not a feature of operation, unlike at some Australian terminals. Indeed, Mr Dlamini recalls that, on September 19, 2006, the terminal achieved an all-time loading record of 409,809 tonnes in 24 hours. “On an average day, you expect to load around 220,000 tonnes,”he adds.

While industrialisation of China has clearly captured the imagination of the entire global community, its direct impact on business at Richards Bay has been negligible, since the terminal does not export coal there. In fact, 62% of output is accounted for by the European Union, with the UK alone importing 15% of total coal shipped, making it RBCT’s largest single customer.

Despite the slight downturn in traffic last year, the Phase V expansion of the terminal is still to go ahead, although simulations have clearly shown that extra capacity of 19m tonnes will be sufficient to meet the short to medium term capacity requirements of export coal producers, rather than the 20m tonnes mooted earlier.

“We say that if there is a compelling case to expand beyond 19m tonnes,we will do so,”says Mr Dlamini. Asked how quickly the terminal would expect to recover investment spent on terminal expansion, he says that a return on investment would be achieved in under ten years, although for Phase V this depends to a certain extent on how much tonnage is directed through the terminal by smaller South African mining concerns that have been granted permission to use this giant export facility. “We raise capital for expansions from various funding institutions in South Africa and believe we do command favourable rates given our status,” says Mr Dlamini.

Quizzed as to why non-shareholding mining companies are being allowed to make use of RBCT, he explains that there is no compulsion from the government to do so. Rather the decision has been made based on these smaller producers paying international competitive prices, as they would in any other company.

“I don’t believe that accommodating coal consignments from smaller mining companies will have a negative impact on our productivity;as terminal managers, we are there specifically to ensure that it does not. We also believe that opening up RBCT to other producers will be good for South Africa's broader economy and help promote the country as a worldclass nation.”

The success or not of Phase V also depends heavily on the ability of state railway company Spoornet to be able to deliver coal to the port from inland mines. Dlamini stresses that RBCT has total confidence in rail managers to provide the necessary capacity, pointing out that this is not the first major expansion of the terminal and that each capacity leap forward has been successfully achieved in partnership with Spoornet.