... but not much cargo is
moving from the port
THE NEW Maputo Corridor road has been warmly welcomed by road transporters, according to Kevin Gesseau of Ikamiji Freight.
A vast improvement on the Mozambique side, he told FTW, and a saving in fuel, tyres, maintenance/ repair and time.
It's one of the safest roads out of Johannesburg, Gesseau said. Also a unique project in Africa because it combines SA and Mozambican private entities.
This business-minded element encourages Gesseau to expect the Lebombo border post to be the first one-stop customs shop.
But that shouldn't be expected to happen overnight, according to an FTW trade source, a specialist on Mozambique.
I'm not holding my breath waiting for that one-stop border post, he said. There's still a lot of distrust between the two sides - and it's still just a rather small place.
There's no separation between private and commercial traffic, and delays are still common.
He also points to a lot of opposition to the toll road in Mozambique. A lot of people are upset because they have to pay a toll on the Maputo-Matola stretch, he said. They're collecting from people who are commuting about 10 kilometres and gain nothing from the toll road.
But one benefit for freight transporters, he added, will be the new, direct access from the road to the port of Maputo.
However, despite distinct benefits for long-haul road carriers, there has been no major increase in commercial traffic through the port since the road was opened, according to FTW's Mozambique contact.
The problem is that it's mostly SA goods bound for Mozambique using the road, he said, with a few bits-and-pieces from there to here.
There's very little traffic moving from the port along that road.
Recent new business on the route to Maputo has been sugar, he added. The Komatipoort sugar mill has started exporting raw sugar through the Maputo harbour sugar terminal owned, intriguingly, by SA's sugar opposition, Swazi Sugar and Zimbabwe Sugar sales. That, however, is rail transported.
But moving by road, said our source, has been bagged, refined sugar heading for Maputo harbour in containerised form. This, he added, being acquired by a Mozambique sugar trader - part of a major UK major - and bound mostly for east African destinations.
That's probably the only new major export traffic through the port that goes by road, he told FTW.
And, while the Mersey Docks & Harbours consortium is due to take over the harbour concession next year they will face an immediate problem, FTW was told. Our source reports that a number of quaysides - including the container quays and the bulk terminal - are again silted up.
That will require quite a bit of money to sort out, he said. And not much can happen in the way of developing traffic until this dredging is completed.
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