Transport

The Shipping Forecast

PORTS

Sustainable growth in Mozambique—and indeed across the continent of Africa—is predicated upon resource exportation, the revenues from which could swiftly percolate throughout the economy in the form of employment and higher standards of living.

MAPUTA AND MATOLA

The deepwater port of Maputo comprises two key components—Maputo Cargo Terminals and Matola Bulk Terminals. The Maputo Port Development Company (MPDC) received a comprehensive 15-year operational and development planning concession in 2003. MPDC, a public-private consortium, in 2010 extended its Port Concession to 2033 with the option of a further 10 years thereafter. This timeframe enables adequate development in step with the government’s broader Port Master Plan. MPDC investments to date amount to $300 million. Volumes handled by the port are earmarked at 50 million tons by 2020 on additional investment of $838 million.

The Matola Coal Terminal is a dry bulk facility operated by South African freight and logistics company Grindrod. Its most recent expansion (Phase 3.5) concluded in October 2013 increased annual export capacity from 6 to 7.5 million tons. Phase 4, to boost capacity above 20 million tons, is at the advanced feasibility stage. Phase 4 involves excavation and land reclamation, plus two new berths, a stockyard and related railway infrastructure. The terminal footprint will ultimately be around 120 ha, and Grindrod also holds a 48,000sqm site at Maputo Main Port for the handling of sized coal for third parties.

PEMBA AND PALMA

Since December 2013, Mozambican state-owned company Sociedade Portos de Cabo Delgado has held a 30-year concession to develop the ports of Pemba and Palma (the latter a greenfield project indexed to LNG exploration in the north). It is a 50-50% partnership between state port and rail manager Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique (CFM) and oil and gas enterprise Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (ENH). The first phase of the Pemba Service Center is set for completion in 2018 and includes an 800m jetty with a 12m draft. State figures indicate initial investment of over $30 billion in the natural gas sector, ramping up LNG capacity to 20 million tons/year, with exports forecast for 2018. Put into context, the Rovuma Basin has reserves capable of “supplying LNG to Germany, Britain, France and Italy for 18 years,” according to Reuters. Duly, related investments are materializing at the northern ports of Pemba and Palma, to accommodate vast logistics base and LNG production plants to process and transport gas produced from offshore fields in the Rovuma Basin being developed by US oil major Anadarko Petroleum Corp and Italy’s Eni.

A second port in Pemba adjacent to the existing facility managed by CFM is to have a special regime to invite private investment. The two will be points of entry for all equipment of gas companies operating in the Rovuma basin, and export nodes for final products, particularly LNG. According to André da Silva, CEO of Portos de Cabo Delgado, “The Cabo Delgado province has considerable reserves of gas, with many others yet to be discovered, such as graphite, of which we have one of the world’s largest reserves.”

BEIRA

According to Maersk Line Managing Director Michael Neerstrand Helweg in conversation with TBY, “The key for Mozambique is investment in Beira, because if you increase its capacity you increase trade with the hinterlands. This would enable a reduction in cost because by attracting larger vessels it could compete with Dar es Salaam and Durban.”

NACALA

Vale commenced production at Mozambique’s giant Moatize mine in August 2011, and today exports coal on Sena railway from the Port of Beira, located around 600km south of the mine. Annual production in 2013 of 3.8 million tons, is set to reach 22 million tons in 2016. Meanwhile, the Nacala port complex—a coal and general cargo terminal—has been developed to accommodate future capacity, enabled by the 912km Nacala line—running through Malawi and Mozambique—which is given over also to general commodities and public transportation. Nacala’s transportation capacity of 22 million tons per year is accommodated by a local coal loading capacity of 18 million tons per year, while the general cargo terminal has a 4 million ton per year loading capacity.

QUELIMANE

Located to the north of Beira and South of Nacala, the Port of Quelimane is a prospective export node for Mozambican coal, located on the coast of Zambezia province. As of January 2015, two potential construction sites—Macuse or Supinho—were subject to environmental and social impact assessments.

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