Freight and logistics parastatal Transnet made "significant progress" during a difficult year, its acting group CEO Chris Wells said in Johannesburg on Thursday.

"We had a very solid year under difficult circumstances and recessionary conditions," Wells told the group's annual results presentation for the year ended March 31.

The group reported a 9.2 percent gain to R14.4-billion in top-line profits.

This was "in spite of the negative impact of the global economic downturn on demand for commodities, containers and freight volumes as well as the adverse effect of a tariff decision by the National Energy Regulator of SA".

Revenue rose six percent to R35.6-billion during the year compared to the prior year.

Wells said Transnet had made plans "early on" in the recession to implement a dynamic management process - "we realised we'd have to cut costs and we saved R2-billion".

Acting group chief financial officer Anaj Singh told the presentation that in spite of difficult financial markets, Transnet successfully raised its funding requirements of R20-billion during the year, in line with its strategy.

"The purpose of the strategy is to mitigate market risk, reduce the weighted average cost of debt and diversify the investor base and sources of funding."

Singh said Transnet's A3/BBB+ credit rating provided confidence for investors to put money into the company.

"Borrowing has been raised without government guarantees," he said.

Wells told the presentation that Transnet's most important capital investment for the year had been the deepening and widening of the Durban harbour entrance channel.

"The project was completed and commissioned one month ahead of schedule and within budget."

Wells said the construction of the new multi-product pipeline (NMPP) was proceeding well.

"It's a massive undertaking and an engineering marvel."

The entire NMPP was scheduled to be completed by December 2012.

Wells said that during the year there had been major asset deliveries.

"Transnet acquired 59 locomotives and 1194 wagons while refurbishing 179 locomotives and 3032 wagons."

Turning to safety, he said there had been eight employee fatalities during the year under review, compared with 13 fatalities during the prior year.

"One fatality is too much - we won't rest until there are no fatalities."

Referring to the recent industrial action at Transnet, Wells said the parastatal had come through the strike "very well".

"The company showed a strong ethical approach throughout."

Catching up on the backlog caused by the strike would be difficult.

"But the strike did show that Transnet is the bedrock of the South African economy - if it isn't working, impacts resound throughout the economy."