New Port Shaping Up in Maputo

The port construction project at Ponta Techobanine in Matutuine district, Maputo Province, recently gained new impetus after the governments of Mozambique and Botswana agreed to mobilize funds for the project, in-cluding the construction of a rail infrastructure that will ensures the export / import of cargos from hinterland countries.

This project, to be established in an area of 22 000 hectares, is estimated at between USD 500 million and USD 1.2 billion in the initially phase, with projections of traffic between 10-50 million tonnes per year.

This natural port can be an ideal infrastructure for the export of a wide range of minerals from Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe and other Southern African countries. Recently, Botswana announced the discov¬ery of large coal reserves.

About 30% of international shipping is carried out through the Mozam¬bique Channel.

The largest investments made and on-going

In view to modernize and rendering the southern rail system more com¬petitive, CFM has invested about $ 20 million to rehabilitate the Ressano Garcia line and other complementary infrastructures vital for integral functioning of this vital infrastructure.

The company is investing to increase the capacity of the Oil Terminal in the Port of Maputo to eight million cubic meters per year.

With regard to port-rail system in the centre of the country, particular em¬phasis goes to the ongoing effort to dredge the Beira port access chan¬nel. Financial negotiations aimed at the purchase a new dredger and rehabilitation of the naval train of the same port, estimated at 35 million euros. The funds required for emergency dredging of the port channel, so that it can receive vessels with a capacity of 60,000 DWT, 24 hours a day.

Beira port has also seen the completion of construction of the new grain terminal, an investment estimated at about USD 18 million.