The Democratic Republic of the Congo has signed a 30-year concession with Mota-Engil Africa to rehabilitate, modernise and operate a key section of the Lobito Corridor railway.
The concession covers approximately 1 037 kilometres of railway between Dilolo, on the border with Angola, and Sakania, near the Zambian border.
According to an official announcement from Mota-Engil, investment over the concession period is expected to reach approximately $1.8 billion (R28.7bn).
The railway crosses the DRC’s mineral-rich Lualaba and Haut-Katanga provinces, providing mines in the Kolwezi, Tenke and Lubumbashi regions with a rail connection to the Port of Lobito on Angola’s Atlantic coast.
Mota-Engil said its African subsidiary would be responsible for managing and maintaining the infrastructure. The concession also provides for the modernisation and rehabilitation of existing railway assets and the construction of new infrastructure.
The line will accommodate goods, minerals, liquids and gases, strengthening the corridor’s role as an export route for the DRC’s copper and cobalt industry.
The concession agreement was signed in Kinshasa in the presence of DRC President Félix Tshisekedi and Angolan President João Lourenço.
Mota-Engil already participates in the consortium operating the Angolan section of the corridor. The Lobito Atlantic Railway consortium, which includes Trafigura and Vecturis, holds a separate 30-year concession to operate and upgrade the 1 300-kilometre railway between the Port of Lobito and Luau, near the DRC border.
The new DRC concession extends the corridor’s operational framework through the Congolese Copperbelt towards Zambia.
Once rehabilitated, the route is expected to provide mining companies with an alternative to road and rail export corridors leading to ports on Africa’s eastern and southern coasts. This could reshape regional mineral flows and increase competition between southern Africa’s ports and freight corridors.
