Beira will have two
additional post-Panamax
gantries fitted with twinlift
spreaders by April 2013,
according to Felix Machado,
marketing and sales manager
of Cornelder de Moçambique –
the port operator.
This will bring the total to
four gantries, which means
that the port will be able
to handle two vessels at a
time with two dedicated
gantries each, with a targeted
productivity of 25 gross crane
moves per hour.
The existing two ship-toshore
container gantry cranes
have been refurbished. They
can handle 42 metric tons with
a spreader, and 50 metric tons
with a hook.
Land-side, the number
of container slots has been
increased to accommodate 11
400 TEUs a day.
The port has already renewed
its fleet of container handling
equipment, and is confident
that it will be able to handle
the additional traffic, he says.
Flow in and out of the
container terminal was
improved through the
construction of a US$3-million
entrance and exit gate and
adjacent marshalling area for
trucks.
This has reduced congestion
at the main gate and allows for
growth in container traffic, he
says.
Fast-growing economies
in neighbouring landlocked
states are increasing demand
for shipping services through
Beira.
The port is 319 kilometres
from the Zimbabwe border at
Machipanda, and 685km by
road from Malawi.
By mid-2013 the port will
also have its own dedicated
maintenance dredger, which
will ensure that the channels
remain open for the larger
container vessels.
Mozambique Ports and
Railways (CFM) has obtained
financing of about Є40
million through the Danish
International Development
Agency (Danida) to acquire the
purpose-built dredger.
Vessels of 60 000 tons were
able to call on the port from
June 2011 for the first time in
28 years following a twoyear
Є43-million dredging
programme financed through
the Mozambican government
via Mozambique’s CFM port
and railways company, the
European Investment Bank,
the Netherlands-based ORET
Fund, and the Dutch company
Van Oord Dredging and
Marine Contractors.
The project involved
dredging a total of 27.5km of
the approaches to the port and
to a width of 230 metres and a
depth of 11 metres.
The Punge River on which
the port is situated deposits
some two million tons of
silt a year.
Machado expects to see more
lines calling on the port as it
regains its status as a gateway
to the sub-region.
The Container and General
Cargo Terminal of Beira Port
are managed through a joint
venture between CFM and
Cornelder Holding – based in
Holland.
At present Maersk, MSC,
DAL and CMA CGM/Delmas
operate services to Beira.
“Once the shipping lines see
the new gantries in operation,
the growth will happen
naturally,” he says.
CAPTION 1
Containers stacked high in the port of Beira.
CAPTION 2
Felix Machado… ‘growth will happen
naturally.’
