Maputo port gets ready for action as rail service kicks in

Trains turned around in less than six hours
JOY ORLEK
CONTRACTS FOR five million tons of SA export cargo are in the pending file at Maputo Port Development Company. One of the major constraints until now has been the rail system, according to commercial director Dick Moore, and with major upgrades already under way there are high hopes that some of the cargo moving through Durban and Richards Bay will soon switch to Maputo. “And it’s not a question of Maputo harming SA logistics,” says Moore. “In fact the contrary is true. “It is being rebuilt for the benefit of South Africa at no cost to South African industry, the treasury or South African tax payers. “The risk is being taken by foreign investors to create a profitable port. And the benefit is that South Africans can get their goods to market cheaper.” The port has more than doubled throughput in the past three years, but this falls far short of expectation, says Moore. “The reason for this is simple. Maputo, unlike Durban and Richards Bay with which it competes, is purely a transit port. “It has therefore always depended on business from Zimbabwe and South Africa – and growth depends on the development of logistics links with South Africa.” Recent upgrade announcements by national railway CFM are good news. Two container trains a week now link Gauteng with Maputo. “CFM is spending US$12m on the Ressano Garcia Line, linking Maputo and Matola with the Spoornet rail system at Komatipoort, which is the first significant modernisation of the railway in many years. “We have waited nearly four years for the railways to catch up with port developments, and in that time we’ve upgraded the railway system inside the port. At the moment trains are being turned around in less than six hours,” he said. “But we’re only doing about five trains a day which is no improvement on four years ago. “Road links are good and the bottleneck at the border between South Africa and Mozambique has been addressed with the introduction of a 16-hour border post,” says Moore. And in terms of rates, don’t expect any increases at the port for some time, he added. “The rates we’re quoting at Maputo compared to Durban and Richards Bay are the rates we need to run the business and recover our investment. “That’s our policy now and in the future. MPDC’s objective is to bring our rates down.”