Mozambique: Coastal shipping on the verge of collapse – AIM report

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique: Coastal shipping on the verge of collapse – AIM report

7:56 CAT | 02 Nov 2021

Picture: O País / STV

Mozambique’s coastal shipping system remains unsustainable and on the verge of collapse, Deputy Transport Minister Manuela Rebelo admitted in a Sunday interview with the independent television station STV.

In the recent past the Transport Ministry enthusiastically proclaimed that coastal shipping was the way to solve key transport problems. It should be cheaper to move bulk cargo by ship, along Mozambique’s 2,800 kilometres of coastline, than by road.

This optimism failed to take into account the country’s antiquated maritime regulations, notably the imposition that ships must use tugs to guide them into port.

Rebelo said coastal shipping is not flowing “because of the unnecessary but mandatory imposition to use tugboats, which are very expensive”.

The situation, she indicated, is critical and many operators in Mozambique have decided to halt their activities.

“Most of the licenced shipping operators have paralysed their activities, as result of the costs they have to pay at the ports,” Rebelo stressed.

Meanwhile, in a bid to avert the collapse of coastal shipping, the Transport Ministry has launched a drive to amend the legislation. “The legislation is under review, in order to reduce the operational costs and relaunch the activity across the country”, Rebelo said. She expected the rules to be changed next year,

The Ministry of Transport is also concerned with the lack of sailors in Mozambique, where maritime navigation is mostly carried out by foreign citizens.

Rebelo said that, with such a long coastline, it was difficult to understand why the country has so few sailors.

Source: AIM