JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) - South Africa's Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) and Richards Bay Port won global recognition at the Global Ports Forum awards ceremony in Dubai on Thursday.

The winners of these prestigious international awards by the ten-year-old Singapore-launched Global Ports Forum are finalised by a judging panel made of global ports council members through a transparent and well defined process, with common criteria applied in each category of awards.

Both RBCT and the Richards Bay Port came through the process with flying colours, with the private-sector-owned RBCT being awarded the Bulk Logistics Port Terminal of the Year accolade after being nominated by its State-owned value chain partner Transnet. Richards Bay Port received the Port/Terminal of the Year-Africa accolade.

RBCT CEO Alan Waller and GM Operations Jabu Mdaki were in Dubai to take the honours, which were described in a release to Creamer Media's Mining Weekly Online "an inspiration for us to continue in our endeavours to move coal passionately through a world-class terminal".

As reported by Mining Weekly Online in January, RBCT last year loaded a record 76.47-million tonnes of South African-mined coal in the 12 months to the end of December in spite of  losing 38 days to bad weather.

Black South Africans own 29.54% of RBCT, 6.52% being black women, with RBCT chairperson Nosipho Siwisa-Damasane of Sasol heading the operation on a pro bono basis.

The terminal loaded 3.9-million tonnes more coal in 2017 than in 2016, and recorded a 1.4% improvement on the previous record of 75.38-million tonnes in 2015.