Mozambique: Cargo handling at Port of Nacala up 12% year on year

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Mozambique: Cargo handling at Port of Nacala up 12% year on year

9:37 CAT | 21 Jan 2022

File photo: Macauhub

Cargo handling at the Port of Nacala, in Nampula province, increased by 12% last year, adding 2.8 million tonnes to the 2.3 million registered in 2020.

The figure was provided by the director of the Port of Nacala, Neimo Induna, during a visit Nacala administrator Etelvina Rita Fevereiro made to learn about the pace of rehabilitation, modernization and expansion of the infrastructure.

On the occasion, ‘Notícias’ reports, Etelvina Rita Fevereiro learned that the handling of general cargo in the Port of Nacala was now taking place in bags, due to an international shortage of containers.

The lack of containers, which has been registered since last year, stems from several factors, including Covid-19 pandemic, which had imposed restrictions on the entry into the port of ships loaded with containers.

Initially, it was expected that the problem would resolve itself in a short time, but, when the management of the Port of Nacala realized that the shortage was hampering port operations, it took the decision to export goods in bags.

Induna said the port had had to reinvent itself to avoid an interruption of activities, but that the use of bags had its downside in the effort required for their handling, which took more time than containers.

“2021 was a challenging year because of the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced us to reinvent our operations, so we started using bags. In addition to the stage of the rehabilitation works, there was a challenging bottleneck at the port which we had to overcome,” Induna said.

Despite these adversities, overall cargo handling surpassed the statistics for 2020.

This year, global production is expected to grow a further 10%, topping three million tonnes.

Despite ongoing rehabilitation works, the port has never closed.

“At the moment, there are several simultaneous fronts in the operations, and it should be possible, through a great effort, to continue to improve performance and put the difficulties behind us,” Induna concluded.

Source: Diario Economico