Vale Mozambique’s director of coal operations, Aliberto Brandao, told Reuters that Vale now expected exports of about 3.4 million tonnes, rather than the previously reported 4.9 million tonnes.

In February, Vale declared force majeure on a number of its coal sales contracts in the wake of high rainfall in Mozambique.

The Sena railway line was closed for two weeks in February, causing disruption for numerous companies in the coal-rich Tete region.

The closure dented the company’s first-quarter results, with total coal shipments including thermal coal only 1.507Mt, a decrease of 5.3% from 1.592Mt in the previous quarter.

Thermal coal volumes amounted to 60,000 tonnes, against 228,000 tonnes in Q4 2012, mainly due to the logistics constrains in Moatize.

Brandao said that the rail closure was a further blow to Vale in the region, where it was already battling infrastructure bottlenecks.

Reuters reported that Vale began exporting coal from Moatize in 2011 but was forced to almost halve its production and export targets in 2012 due to infrastructure problems.

Brandao added that coal production from Moatize was forecast at 6.4 million tonnes for 2014, rising to 9.2 million a year after. Vale is investing to expand the mine's annual capacity to 11 million tonnes and plans to double that by 2018.