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We ensure our product can reach our customers around the world

Our logistics processes and infrastructure serve as the link between our operations and our clients. They ensure our product is able to reach customers around the world. Our logistics chain requires careful management and well developed, trusted business partnerships, which allow us to meet customers’ production timelines.

Our Northern Cape operations are serviced by a dedicated iron ore rail link, the Sishen/Kolomela-Saldanha iron ore export channel (IOEC). The port at Saldanha Bay is the only dedicated iron ore export facility in South Africa and is larger than the country’s other four major ports combined.

Rail infrastructure

Every day of the week, our iron ore is transported from our Sishen and Kolomela mines to Saldanha Bay by rail.

The 861km rail system that links the Sishen mine to the dedicated deepwater port and bulk loading facilities is among the most efficient and advanced logistical systems in the world.

The system is owned and operated by Transnet (the South African parastatal transport company) and is regarded as a model of integrated planning and cooperation between the public and private sectors in South Africa.

Massive trains weighing 34,200 tonnes leave our mines every nine hours, each train having five to six locomotives and 342 wagons which contain our iron ore.

The wagons are offloaded at the Saldanha port and from there, the ore is transported via conveyor belt to stockpiles, onto a vessel waiting in the harbour, or to the ArcelorMittal South Africa Saldanha stockpile.

Saldanha port at a glance

Saldanha Bay port is bigger than Durban, Cape Town’s Table Bay, Richards Bay and Port Elizabeth’s harbours combined.

The ore quay at Saldanha has two berths where two vessels of 310,000 deadweight tonnage can simultaneously tie up at the iron ore jetty.

The terminal operates 24/7 and has the capacity to offload 10,000 tonnes per hour onto a vessel.

From arrival to departure an ore vessel carrying 170,000 tonnes will be in Saldanha Bay for just 24 hours.

Saldanha Bay port submits an annual environmental report in line with the Global Reporting Initiative. It respects that it is located in an ecologically sensitive area, and takes all measures possible to manage the area responsibly.