Coal mining in Mozambique’s Tete province has enabled a rail freight capacity upgrade and system overhaul to the Port of Nacala, with beneficial developments for a wider range of bulk freight cargo types, Kennedy Kwerani of Nacala Logistics in Malawi has said.
Responding to an earlier report questioning the infrastructural integrity of logistical linkages to the port, the service provider’s commercial and marketing manager said that “a lot has happened since Brazilian mining company Vale started operations in Tete.
“There was no line from Tete to Nkaya (Mozambique’s border with Malawi), so one of the considerations was to ship coal out through the Port of Beira.
“Beira though was already becoming congested with the amount of cargo it was handling for its corridor to Zimbabwe and Zambia, so it was decided to upgrade the line from Tete through Malawi to Nacala,” said Kwerani.
Kwerani said whereas previous reports, such as a 2010 study by the Japan International Corperation Agency had found that hinterland logistics to the port was sub-standard, much had changed since 2011.
“The entire section of the railway line from Nayuchi through Nampula to the port was dilapidated but has since been upgraded to handle 21.5 tonnes per axle.
“As a result of the upgrades we can handle bulk loads at speeds of 70 kilometres an hour on the line from Tete to Ncala,” he added.
Kwerani said at current capacity levels, featuring 720 tonnes of coal split up between 120 wagons pulled and pushed by two locomotives on either side, Tete coal to the port was measured at 1.4 million tonnes in May.
He added that Malawi’s rail freight company, Central East African Railways, and its Mozambican peer, Corredor de Desenvolvimento de Norte (Northern Development Corridor), had also extended a section from the parallel line at Cuamba to Lichinga.
Similar cross sections have also linked up with Blantyre and Malawi’s Sandama border with Mozambique in the south.
“The only reason why another line from the main line to Salima and Chipata on the Zambian border isn’t used at the moment is because of the damage to bridges caused by a recent cyclone.
“Repair work is well under way though and it’s hoped that the line north should be reopened,” Kwerani said.
However, through bi-modal efficiencies, Nacala Logistics is managing to handle cargo that is transhipped from rail to road or vice versa where required.
As for transit times that used to be an issue, Kwerani said port-to-point delivery and pick-up times have improved to the extent that takes 36 hours or less to complete a journey from Blantyre to Nacala.
“So it’s completely untrue that we still have capacity issues on the railway system to the Port of Nacala. Whatever was found in Jica’s report back in 2010 is simply not relevant anymore,” he said.
- This is the first part of two reports from an interview conducted with Kwerani.
