Port privatisation a success says Mozambique PM

Mozambiquan Prime Minister Aires Ali said that the government’s decision to farm out management of the port of Maputo to a private company has produced results of great importance for the country’s economy, reports news agency, AIM. Speaking at the Second Annual Conference of Maputo Port, Ali said that, thanks to the investments undertaken by the Maputo Port Development Company (MPDC), the port is now financially more robust, and is more competitive, offering a speedy response to the concerns of its users. MPDC is a consortium between the private Portus Indico (with 51%) the publicly owned port and rail company CFM (33%), and the Mozambican state (16%). Portus Indico is 48.5% owned by DP World of Dubai, 48.5% by Grindrod International of South Africa, and three per cent by the Mozambican company Mocambique Gestores. Ali recalled that, when it leased out the port to private management in 2003, it believed that this was the best way of making the port more modern and more competitive. “Today we have the privilege to witness the harvesting of these fruits”, he said. “Our optimism is based on the forecast that this year Maputo Port will handle 14-million tonnes of cargo compared with 4.5-mt a year prior to the lease, representing a growth of about 200%”. As a corollary to this growth the port is now a major contributor to the public treasury. About 25% of the country’s customs revenue comes from Maputo Port. The Master Plan for the port, budgeted at about US$1.7-billion, and under implementation since 2009, envisage an ambitious programme of investment in areas such as dredging the entrance channel, expanding the coal, container, vehicles and dry bulk terminals, and building or rehabilitating internal rail lines and roads, and the quays. The downside was the increased use of roads to transport goods to and from the port. Ali pointed out that this reduces the useful life of the roads, increases fuel consumption, and has damaging environmental impacts. According to the MPDC statistics the amount of cargo handled by the port increased from 4.5-mt in 2003 to 11.8-mt in 2011, and is expected to reach 14-mt this year. The expansion plan envisages an enormous increase in cargo, to 40-mt a year within the next five to six years. Much of this will be coal and iron. The coal terminal currently handles six million tonnes. This is expected to rise to 30-mt a year – 20-mt of coal and 10-mt of iron ore (magnetite). The coal will mostly come from South Africa and Botswana.