Angola/DRC/Zambia rail network to compete with SA

The project to rebuild Angola’s 1 344 kilometre Benguela Railway (Caminho de Ferro de Benguela) has been completed.

It runs from the Atlantic Ocean port of Lobito to the border town of Luau.

There it will connect with a 600km railway which, on completion, will runs onwards to the DRC’s copper-rich Katanga province.

The combined railroads will soon provide the shortest link between the Congolese mining interests and their international markets via Lobito.

Also planned in Zambia is a railway connecting its rich copper-belt with the CFB – a project expected to start before the end of 2014.

These three projects will create a rail and export port network that effectively competes with the SA railway systems which encompass Botswana, the DRC, Zambia and Zimbabwe - making these countries currently reliant on the port of Durban to export their mineral output.

The CFB contract will allow a maximum train speed of 90 km/hr, and have the capacity for 20 million tonnes of cargo per year.

According to the contractors, China Railway Construction, it cost the Angolan state the equivalent of R19.4 billion.

Sources: macauhub.com, Eurasia Review and Xinhua news agency