Johannesburg – Transnet’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation fell 33.7% to R17.1 billion in the nine months to December 31 after its operations were hard hit by Covid-19 related lockdowns.
The transport utility, which last week launched a court review of tenders to acquire 1,064 locomotives for R54,4billion, one of the largest single procurement events undertaken by a state-owned company, said the lockdown in March 2020 had severely constrained demand for port, pipeline, and rail freight services.
However, Transnet said that it had remained resilient.
The group generated more than R18,6billion cash flows from its operations as at December 31, sufficiently funding finance costs and working capital, and nettingR4.3billion from operating activities to fund the capital investment programme.
Revenue fell 13.7% to R49.3billion on lower volumes. Operations expenditure increased by 2.7% to R32.2billion. Cost-containment initiatives limited this increase, despite unexpected Covid-19 related expenses of R218million, and a R594.5million provision of pipeline spill sites following theft incidents.
Volumes transported in South Africa to end-November 2020 were 12.8% lower than the previous year and the corresponding 11% lower, with the most impact being containers, automotive, mining minerals and petroleum.
In addition, the company’s rail network and operations continued to go through high incidences of cable theft, power failures, vandalism, adverse weather conditions and deteriorating infrastructure conditions.
