Moz dry port sees growing demand for services

There has been rapid growth in demand for the services offered by a dry port and inland container depot in Beira, Mozambique. “We have been fully operational since August 2014 and are now running at full capacity in both our transit and bonded warehousing facilities,” says Aleksandrs Kucerovs, who was appointed general manager of Independent Beira Logistics Terminals and Services (IBLT&S) in September last year. The terminal successfully handled its first tobacco season “with great results in tobacco stuffing and re-fumigation,” says Kucerovs, who has 11 years of experience in the logistics industry across three continents. On the export side he is expecting volumes of tobacco and minerals through the terminal to increase. “We are also seeing growth in our import operations, which includes the stripping of containers and consolidation of loads for distribution locally in Mozambique and into the neighbouring southern African markets,” he said. Growth is being driven in part by the Beira Corridor initiative, as well as the port of Beira – both of which are supported by IBLT&S. The company was founded in 2013 as part of the J&J Group of Companies with the objective of providing high quality logistics solutions on the Beira corridor, says Kucerovs. The modern Inland Container Depot (ICD) is situated in Manga on the main highway to the Zimbabwe border. It is fully access controlled and under constant CCTV surveillance to ensure maximum security of the cargo stored on site. An eight-hectare open logistics area is fully paved and is designed to handle a 45-ton Kalmar container handler. This is supplemented by a Kalmar empty container handler and several smaller machines, enabling the terminal to handle the full range of products moving along the Beira corridor. INSERT & CAPTION We are seeing growth in import consolidations for distribution in Mozambique and neighbouring southern African markets. – Aleksandrs Kucerovs