The Maputo Port Development Company (MPDC) has joined a “tactical forum” with key stakeholders to unlock all the Limpopo Corridor bottlenecks, according to Heldio Dimande, senior manager business development at MPDC. These bottlenecks include shortages of rolling stock and locomotives. Maputo is the prime export gateway for certain Zimbabwean minerals, according to Dimande.“Maputo seeks to engage the Zimbabwean market to support key trade agents in order to provide an efficient and integrated solution,” he says.There is capacity for Zimbabwean importers and exporters to make greater use of both the container and bulk facilities in the Port of Maputo. The container terminal can handle 300 000 TEUs a year.Some of the mineral exports from Zimbabwe are packed into containers at the MPDC intermodal depot (MICD), which is inside the port. Container exports from Zimbabwe are mainly empties being repositioned. “Therefore, there is potential to grow more of the container traffic via the Limpopo Corridor,” says Dimande. Ferrochrome and chrome ore are moved on the Limpopo corridor from the Kwekwe mining district in central Mozambique and the Great Dyke region. Most of the ore is transported by rail, and crosses into Mozambique at the Chiqualaquala/Sango border post in the Gaza province of Mozambique. At this point control of the train is handed between the Zimbabwean and Mozambican state railway operators.MPDC is continuing to invest in the port in order to handle growing volumes.Over the next two years the capacity of the rail siding in the port will be doubled.Upgrades to the quayside will see the port adding 2.4 million tons of capacity for bulk such as ferrous minerals and chrome ore by the end of 2020. Rehabilitation and strengthening of the quays will enable the port to accommodate longer and deeper draught vessels, up to Panamax size. Some 81% of the cargo handled by the Port of Maputo is mineral bulk.The breakdown is: magnetite and coal 34%; chrome and ferro alloys 39% (of which 1% is derived from the Limpopo Corridor – mainly Zimbabwe); aluminium 8% and fuel 7%.In 2019 the port handled around 25.6 million tons of cargo.
INSERT: There is potential to grow more of the container traffic via the Limpopo Corridor.– Heldio Dimande