IT IS the world's richest mining reserves that are driving most of the trade into the north-west of Tanzania and fringing over into Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, according to Andre Fourie, director of TransAfrica Logistics.
And it is the major investment from local mining houses that sees most of this trade stemming from SA sources.
It's the mining boom that's responsible for the whole development of cargo movement into Tanzania and the immediately surrounding states, said Fourie. This has added all the mines' needs to the traditional trade in agricultural crops and goods. And, with SA retailers spreading their wings round southern Africa, there is also growing movement of consumer goods alongside the two basic trade generators of mining and agriculture.
The companies mining and exploring this region are all amongst the well-established in the industry - and all chasing the wealth of mining products that exist in the region.
There's everything, said Fourie. Gold, diamonds, nickel, tin - you name it, it's there.
It's the richest complex in the world. Richer by far than anything we ever had here.
The mines themselves generate a wide-range of needs, Fourie added. They need mining equipment, parts and everything needed to create a community in the mines, he told FTW. From explosives to toilet rolls; cement and steel to foodstuffs.
As the mines become better established, they can also be expected to develop a two-way traffic - filling the currently near-empty leg southwards.
We will soon start to experience this, said Fourie, as equipment begins to come back for repair-and-return. This southbound traffic is only a trickle at the moment, but it will be the growth point for return traffic in the future.
The other good point about the location of this mining belt - and the business it's generating for the TransAfrica Railway that Fourie's logistics company feeds with traffic - is the sheer distance from NW Tanzania to the East African seaport at Dar es Salaam.
Our rail service can, therefore, compete on a distance perspective, he said.
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