London — The South African based company Coal of Africa has announced that its exports in the second quarter of this year were down by 49 per cent.

This was due to the closure of the Ressano Garcia railway line in southern Mozambique.

On 18 February, a freight train derailed, damaging a bridge and halting the movement of trains between the South African border and Maputo.

The line reopened in April, but the company did not restart the movement of coal to the Matola coal terminal until May.

As a result, its exports through Matola fell to 136,172 tonnes, down from 271,069 tonnes in the first quarter. In the last quarter of 2012, the company exported 411,292 tonnes of coal through Matola.

Coal of Africa was forced to declare force majeure at its South African collieries in Mooiplaats, Woestalleen and Vele following the closure of the railway line.

The company is a major partner of Maputo port. Not only does it export much of the coal from its mines in South Africa through the port, but it also gave the port operator Grindrod a loan of 16 million US dollars in 2009 to finance the expansion of the Matola Coal Terminal.