Selling Thermal Coal Without Richards Bay Entitlement

The most common failure in South African coal is a seller with real tonnes, a genuine certificate of analysis and no way to get the material onto a vessel. Richards Bay Coal Terminal runs on an allocated entitlement system. If you do not hold one, or have not contracted access to somebody who does, the coal does not move regardless of how good it is.

Establish your route before you offer anything

Every serious buyer will ask this question within the first two messages, and an answer that is vague will end the conversation. You need to be able to say either that you hold entitlement at Richards Bay, that you have a contracted arrangement with a party who does and can evidence it, or that you are working through Maputo.

All three are acceptable answers. Not knowing is not.

The Maputo route

Maputo Port in Mozambique has become the practical outlet for South African coal that has no Richards Bay allocation. It takes material arriving by rail and by road, and it works at Supramax and small Panamax sizes rather than Capesize.

The economics are different and you should be honest with yourself about them. Road haulage into Maputo costs more per tonne than rail into Richards Bay. The border adds time and paperwork. The smaller vessel carries a higher freight cost per tonne on a long voyage. Against all of that, the coal actually moves, which for a seller without entitlement is the only comparison that matters.

Maputo also opens buyers that Richards Bay cannot serve. A buyer wanting 30,000 tonnes rather than 55,000 does not fit the vessel classes Richards Bay is built around, and there are a good number of those buyers.

Cargo size determines who will talk to you

Coal is a cargo trade, not a parcel trade. Through Richards Bay the practical floor is 55,000 tonnes, which is a Panamax. Through Maputo, cargoes from around 30,000 tonnes are workable. Below that the freight per tonne erodes the arbitrage and the buyer is better served buying delivered from somebody already breaking bulk at destination.

If your monthly output sits below those numbers, aggregation is the route. Smaller producers are routinely combined into a single cargo, and a desk that works coal regularly will usually know who else is loading in your window.

Do not write off your mid grades

Producers with RB2 and RB3 material frequently believe they have a second rate product. They do not. A very large part of the world's installed generation fleet, particularly across South Asia, was built around lower calorific value coal and runs it more efficiently than it would run a premium grade. There is also a substantial blending market where a utility lifts a low grade domestic stockpile with an imported mid grade.

RB3 is a specification, not a defect. Price it against the index with the correct differential and it sells.

Your laycan is a rail question

Laycan slippage in South African coal is almost always a rail problem rather than a mine problem. A buyer fixing a vessel against an optimistic laycan carries demurrage nobody budgeted for, and they will remember who caused it.

Quote the laycan your rail programme supports, not the one you hope for. When a desk asks to see the rail programme rather than the stated laycan, that is a good sign about the desk, not an insult to you.

What to have ready

A certificate of analysis from a named independent body, covering calorific value on a net as received basis, ash, sulphur, volatiles, moisture and sizing. Your monthly tonnage and the rail or road programme behind it. Your terminal position, evidenced. A realistic laycan. And a clear statement of whether you are the producer, hold the coal, or are mandated.

A seller who can produce those five things quickly is, in this market, already in the top decile of the offers a desk sees in a week.