Adecision by the Mozambican cabinet to extend the concession of the port of Beira to Cornelder for a further 15 years has unlocked plans to gradually increase capacity from 300 000 to 700 000 TEUs a year, according to the port’s executive managing director Jan de Vries.
Bulk capacity will increase from 750 000 tons per quay to 1.2 million tons a year. With the current concession ending in 2023, the extension means that Cornelder will be managing the port in a joint venture with the stateowned railway company Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique (CFM) until 2038.
In order to increase port capacity the cabinet also approved an investment plan in the amount of US$290 million. In the pipeline for the Mozambique government are further upgrades to the EN6 highway between Beira and the border with Zimbabwe at Machipanda, as well as the 317 kilometres of the Beira-Machipanda railway line. Ongoing investment in the port has already seen improvements in productivity, according to De Vries. Larger vessels are calling following the dredging of the access channel and harbour.
“The main advantage of the dredging is that vessels can now arrive and leave full. Previously they had to call at Maputo or Nacala to ‘top up’. That means we can attract more direct calls,” he told FTW. Systems are being modernised and the port infrastructure upgraded to accommodate larger volumes. Truck turnaround has been improved by the opening of a dedicated entrance gate, and this will be replicated at the exit to the port. Building will commence in 2019.
Once completed there will be a covered inspection area. There are also plans to introduce automated gates where scanners will identify vehicles and read barcodes containing all the information on the load. On the quayside the four gantry cranes will be increased to six, with the two older single-lift units being replaced by gantries capable of twin lifts. The existing container yard will be increased gradually in various phases. Once this has reached capacity the port has plans to invest in rubber-tyred gantries which will optimise the use of the space in the port.
“As part of our operations automation, we will be implementing a terminal operating system in the General Cargo Terminal which will revolutionise operations and flow in the port,” he says. New bulk warehouses will be built for bulk cargo to be loaded directly off the vessel. At present most of the bulk cargo is loaded directly onto trucks. This system has built-in constraints in terms of the speed of discharge. Having a conveyor system feeding directly into the warehouse or rail trucks will improve vessel turnaround time and free up the berth faster.” The port will offer services like bagging but will not, however, offer long-term storage.
“We will be complementing the warehouse operations outside the port, and will only hold the cargo for one to three weeks,” he says. The loading of bulk cargo is also being speeded up with investment in additional mobile cranes and the removal of bottlenecks through new access and exit infrastructure at the General Cargo Terminal as well as control systems to improve the truck flow in the terminal and on the quays.
“We will continue to remove bottlenecks to meet growing demand in order to ensure that the port of Beira remains an engine of growth for the region,” he says.
The port of Beira operates around the clock. Vessels can now also use the approach channel at night. Truck turnaround has been improved by the opening of a dedicated entrance gate.
