South Africa's bulk export volumes rose by 6.6% in 2011 to a record 141.493 million tons, Transnet National Ports Authority data shows. 

However, this was slower than the 9.0% jump in 2010.

Shipments out of Richards Bay, which are mostly coal, have disappointed with a 1.4% rise to 76 million tons (Mt), while mostly iron ore shipments out of Saldanha Bay increased by 12.3% to 53.3 Mt.

The star performer has been agricultural and manganese exports out of the other South African ports, such as Durban and Port Elizabeth, which jumped by 18.7% to 12.2 Mt.

Part of the problem with coal exports has been cable theft on the Mpumalanga-Richards Bay coal line, which has resulted in derailments and other disruptions to traffic. These disruptions have meant that coal and other bulk exports shipments out of Richards Bay have yet to exceed the 78.2 Mt achieved way back in 2003.

The coal line was closed for 20 days in May and June 2011 to do necessary maintenance and in October exports out of Richards Bay exceeded 8 Mt or an annualised 96 Mt, but this eased to 7.3 Mt in November before rising to 7.5 Mt in December.

The majority of bulk exports go to Asia as China, India and Japan require South African coal and iron ore to feed their steel mills and thermal coal power stations.

As nuclear power stations in Japan have reduced their output after the March earthquake, Japan requires more coal to burn in their thermal power stations.

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