Palabora Mining Company Ltd and Grindrod Limited, today announced the conclusion of a 5-year contract. The contract is for the handling and storage of 5-million tonnes per annum of magnetite at Grindrod’s Matola terminal in Mozambique. The cargo is railed to Matola from the mine in Limpopo. Keith Mathole, General Manager of Marketing, Sales, Logistics and Corporate Affairs at Palaborwa Copper said: “We are very pleased to have reached an agreement with Grindrod. This will ensure that we have an efficient dedicated logistics solution to provide stability for our business.”
Vishal Deeplaul, CEO Grindrod Terminals said: “The conclusion of this contract is significant to Grindrod and is on the back of the great second half 2019 performance for our Matola terminal. The efficiencies have provided the confidence to deliver the contracted volumes as well as the terminal’s nameplate capacity of 7.3 million tonnes per annum. Delivering the second-half record volumes at Matola terminal was due to the continuous rail efficiency improvements and strong collaboration between Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) and Mozambican Ports and Railway Company (CFM). Transnet's Chief Customer Officer Mike Fanucchi said, “Transnet, as always, is happy to facilitate good business from our customers and we welcome the signing of this contract which we are committed to enabling along our corridor in conjunction with our rail partners, CFM.”
For the year 2019, the Matola terminal handled record volumes of 5.9 million tonnes, a growth of 13,5% from the previous year and exceeded all previous loading records for the 4-consecutive months from September 2019 to January 2020, loading more than 600 000 tonnes per month.
“We are very appreciative of the support received from our customers, CFM, TFR, and are proud of the efficiencies that our terminal delivered,” said Vishal.
Andrew Waller, CEO Grindrod Limited said: “This contract is in line with Grindrod’s strategic focus of securing contracted volumes for diversified cargo and building effective trade corridor solutions for bulk commodities in sub-Saharan Africa. We are continuously working with our customers to find the most efficient and cost-effective supply chain solutions and investing in people and infrastructure to grow capacity.”