The cargo processing capacity at the Port of Maputo will increase from 40 million to 50 million tons by 2020.
This is according to Osorio Sales Lucas, president of the Maputo Port Development Company (MPDC) who was speaking at the launch of the Joint Operation Centre (JOC) of the Maputo Corridor.

Three new docks will also be constructed along with dredging to increase the depth of the port from its current 11 metres to 14 metres, enabling larger draft vessels to moor at the port.

Lucas says, “A tender will be announced in the coming months to ensure that new dredging operations are carried out by a company with capacity to carry out the work. Meanwhile, Italeni, Transnet Freight Rail’s new dredger, is due to arrive in Maputo for maintenance dredging.”

“Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique also plans to invest US$1 million in infrastructure and rolling stock to allow most of the cargo sent to the port of Maputo to arrive by rail, rather than by road as is currently the case.”

The MPDC, a partnership that includes South Africa’s Grindrod and DP World of the United Arab Emirates as its main shareholders, handled 17 million tons of cargo in 2013, and is expected to increase this to 19 million tons this year.

The JOC which has been in operation since 2013, coordinates the operations of Transnet Freight Rail, CFM, Swaziland Railway and the MPDC. In this time it has introduced improvements, including reduction of waiting times by 24 percent in Komatipoort and at the Port of Maputo by 57 percent, while South African exports of magnetite increased from an average of 10 to 18 trains per week.

The JOC aims to also shift more freight from road to railways.

Source – macauhub