South  Africa's  Transnet  Freight  Rail completed scheduled maintenance on its coal transport 

lines Monday evening after a one-week shutdown, a company spokesman said Tuesday. 

The planned shutdown was carried out to perform annual maintenance work on the 580-km line, 

which  carries 72 million-74 million mt of thermal coal from the Witbank coal area to the Richards 

Bay  Coal  Terminal annually for delivery into the export market, said Mike Asefovitz, spokesman 

for the national carrier. 

Trains  have  begun  loading  already  from  the  Witbank  coal mines, which coordinated annual 

maintenance with TFR, he said. 

RBCT also performed maintenance over the course of week. 

"We  did  this  in  conjunction  with  the mines and RBCT," Asefovitz said. "They closed down as 

well."