Transnet CEO Advocate Michelle Phillips insists there will be no turning back from current yearly railed volume levels of above 160-million tons. But she has also reiterated that private sector participation (PSP) will be central to achieving the “country target” of 250-million tons by 2030.

In a podcast interview at the Investing in African Mining Indaba in Cape Town, Phillips said that volumes had fallen to a low of 149-million tons in 2022/23 and had since recovered to 160.1-million tons in 2024/25. In the six month to September 30, 2025, Transnet reported a 4.4% period-on-period rise in rail volumes to 81.4-million tons.

However, she described the 250-million-ton target as a country target that could not be met by the State-owned freight logistics group alone, despite its own plans to continue to increase volumes.

“We've surpassed the 160-million tons, and we want to get you to the 170-million tons and into the 180-million tons and into the 200-million tons…[but] 250-million tons by 2030 is the country target, or a ‘SA Inc’ target,” Phillips said.

“You will recall that we've invited private train operators to join us on the network.

“We've granted 11 of them conditional awards, and I signed one of the agreements the other day.

“So, we will see these private operators also making use of the network, and we're hoping that, as a country, we can get to the 250-million tons by 2030.”

She stressed that Transnet had embraced the reforms opening the rail and port networks to private companies and had also embraced collaboration with its customers, particularly on the iron-ore and coal corridors, in a bid to accelerate a recovery in volumes.

“We are not scared to go and ask for help,” Phillips said, indicating that it was working with coal customers to improve security on the corridor linking Mpumalanga to the Port of Richards Bay, in KwaZulu-Natal, while it had partnered with the iron-ore miners to improve the state of the line to the West Coast.

Transnet is also working on several PSP transactions that it aims to release into the market in the coming months, with the PSP at Durban Container Terminal Pier 2 with International Container Terminal Services (ICTSI), of the Philippines, having become operational in January, following resolution of a long-running legal dispute.

“We've identified a number of other private sector participation transactions, and we've got about four or five for this next year that we will go to market with.

She acknowledged criticism of the slow pace at which these transactions were being released, but insisted that this was in the interests of preparing quality transactions.

“I’d rather be slow than rush, and then spend my time in court fighting as to whether I've done the right thing or not.”