Visas for foreigners to invest or work in Mozambique are more expensive - A Verdade
O País
More than 90 percent of the dredging work required to increase the capacity of the port of Maputo has already been completed, the port will be able to receive vessels of greater tonnage by mid-January 2017, executive director Osório Lucas of the MPDC port management company says.
The first test took place on 1 December when a 160,000-ton ship carry 90,000 tonnes of cargo set off from Maputo for China, something that would have been impossible before the work was carried out.
Prior to the dredging, ships entering or leaving the port could carry only 60,000 to 70,000 tons of cargo.
MPDC, the Maputo port management company, hopes to complete the work a month before schedule.
“Our expectation is that the dredging will be completed by mid-January 2017, against initial dates of late May, then February. The works is going ahead at top speed, so much so that we have already received the first increased tonnage ship,” Lucas says.
Now, some ships visiting Maputo Port can carry up to 120,000 thousand tons, since the port has quays with this capacity. To reach this capacity without restrictions, the management company plans to rebuild a quay in the next three years.
But that is not all.
“The rehabilitation of the coal terminal, which will have a quay with a depth of 14 meters, is underway. The channel already has a depth of 14 meters, but we have to have a quay with the same depth. At present, the pier is 12 meters deep. It means that the ship cannot have a draught of more than 12 meters. By August of next year, we will have the first pier with a depth of 14 meters, and in two and a half years, a second,” Lucas explains.
The first large-tonnage ship, which departed on December 1, is 289 meters long and 45 meters beam. Its visit was only possible due to the deepening of the port of Maputo channel from 11 meters to 14.2.
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