Cape Town - South Africa’s state-owned logistics and freight firm Transnet will pocket a R30-billion ($2 billion) loan from the China Development Bank to improve its ageing train fleet, its acting chief executive said on Thursday.
Siyabonga Gama told a news conference on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum for Africa in Cape Town that R18-billion of the loan had already been transferred to the state utility.
“The repayment of the loan is 15 years with a grace period of four-and-a-half years while the locomotives are under construction,” Gama said.
Transnet said it had now secured 92 percent of the R50-billion required for its 1 062 locomotive build programme, which it says will help the company grow its volumes to 350 million tons from 210 million tons in the next seven years.
Barclays Africa, Investec, Standard Bank, Old Mutual and Export Development Bank are some of the other funders of the improvement project, which will focus on building new infrastructure in harbour city Durban as well as inland capital Pretoria.
Transnet plans to invest over R300-billion by 2019 to expand the railways, ports and pipelines that handle commodities in Africa's most advanced economy.
Reuters