The Port of Beira has set up 30 disinfectant posts to cope with an increase in cargo brought about by freight diverted away from South African ports which have been operationally shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19).
According to Jan de Vries, CEO of Beira concession holder Cornelder de Moçambique, the port’s containerisation volumes are in excess of projections released earlier this year when he was on a marketing visit to South Africa.
Speaking to journalists in Mozambique, De Vries said ship calls were increasing in frequency, carrying mostly food and fertiliser for neighbouring Zimbabwe and Zambia.
Escalating throughput comes at an opportune time as De Vries told shippers and freight concerns in Johannesburg during his visit that the port had been strategising around an increase in essential cargo.
Not only had the necessary facilities already been put in place prior to Covid-19 lockdown procedures, but Beira’s bulk freight capacity for securely handling ore coming out of the copper belt had also been improved.
“The ships and the trucks are coming,” De Vries told news site Club of Mozambique.
“We have created conditions for this. At the same time it’s important that our work does not stop.”
News of Beira benefiting from cargo constraints experienced elsewhere in the region because of lockdowns follows an earlier development in South Africa where it was announced that the government had lifted the regulation requiring goods to be sanitised upon arrival. (https://www.ftwonline.co.za/article/government-lifts-regulations-decongest-ports).
