The construction of a new railway line and a deep-water port in Macuse, in Mozambique’s Zambézia province, offers significant opportunity to exporters out of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Zambia. While the main purpose of the railway and port will be to export coal from Tete, international railway developers have said it could become the main export corridor for most of the commodities from the Copperbelt. Boetie Zandberg, director of engineering for Railnet International, which has been commissioned to do a feasibility study for rail developments in Zambia, told Freight News if one linked the rail being planned in Zambia and the DRC to that in Mozambique one would have a very efficient mineral corridor. “Most of the minerals in the region are currently moving on trucks. The development of rail corridors makes sense. Not only from a cost perspective, but also allowing far higher volumes to move,” he said. “The DRC and Zambia have two options to consider – moving the cargo through Angola or Mozambique. If one looks at the developments taking place in Macuse then it makes sense to link these railway lines.” He said it would require moving to the same railway gauge. “At present they are running Cape gauge in Mozambique which is under a lot of speed restrictions. Trains don’t move faster than 40 to 50km per hour. If one changes that to standard gauge, trains can run at 120km per hour with much heavier loads.” Zandberg said while it would require some regional co-operation to use the same gauge, a lot could be achieved by linking the Copperbelt to Mozambique. “In the Copperbelt at present there is a huge reliance on road transport. Moving minerals by train is far more efficient. One could easily remove 300 trucks from the road with one train,” he said. The Macuse port and rail project represents a total investment of $3.2 million. The Mozambican ministry of transport and communications granted Thai Mocambique Logistica the concession in 2013 to build and operate the port and a railway corridor between Chitima, Moatize and Macuse. The railway infrastructure for this 639km stretch of rail will see an investment of around $1.89 million and connect to the Port of Macuse, which will start with an initial capacity of 33 million tons per annum. The project had seen many delays, said Zandberg, but hopes were high that construction would start within the next year. He said the move away from making Macuse only a coal port and opting to handle all kinds of cargo was another positive development for the region as a whole. “The port will have a strong focus on coal, but it will increase the capacity for exporters in the DRC and Zambia as well. We estimate only about 20 to 30% of capacity is being exported because of the reliance on road. The bulk of commodities out of the DRC and Zambia are moving on trucks and it is expensive. The sooner we can link the DRC and Zambia by rail to export ports the better.”
INSERT: “One could easily remove 300 trucks from the road with one train.” T– Boetie Zandberg
