Mozambique: President wants fewer trucks, more trains to port of Maputo – Watch

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Mozambique: President wants fewer trucks, more trains to port of Maputo – Watch

5:20 CAT | 30 May 2025

Screen grab: TVM

Mozambique’s president said on Friday that the current growth in road transport of coal and magnetite to the Matola terminal in the port of Maputo is unacceptable, calling for measures to return it to the railways.

“The Matola Coal Terminal, by vocation and origin, is a railway infrastructure. It was designed and conceived to receive cargo from the railways.

It is therefore unacceptable that we are now seeing growth in road transport of coal and magnetite — two products that have always been transported by rail,” said the head of state during a visit to the site on the outskirts of Maputo.

“That is why it is our goal to continue investing in the railway so that we have fewer and fewer trucks and more wagons transporting coal and magnetite. We thus reaffirm our determination to reverse this trend. The railway must resume its central role in the corridor. To this end, it is urgent to accelerate structural change to increase the efficiency of the railway component and boost the competitiveness of the Maputo corridor”, he added.

Daniel Chapo was speaking at the inauguration of the new office building of the operator Grindrod at the Matola Coal Terminal, which also marked the start of work to expand and increase the capacity of this terminal, which accounts for around 27% of the total volume of cargo handled at the port of Maputo, mainly from South Africa, exported through the Mozambican capital.

“The investment now launched, in the order of $80 million (€70.6 million), will enable the Matola Coal Terminal to increase its capacity from the current eight million tonnes to 12 million tonnes per year within two years,” he said.

Chapo advocated “operational integration” between the state-owned company Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique (CFM) and its terminals, which “should not just be an intention, but should become a reality”, with “benefits not only at a technical and operational level, but also positive impacts in the economic, social and environmental fields, including the creation of more jobs along the corridor”.

He recalled that the first stone of the $160 million (€141.2 million) Container Terminal expansion project has already been laid, which will “more than double the installed capacity,” followed by the expansion of the Coal Terminal, both part of the extension of the port concession to the Maputo Port Development Company (MPDC) for another 25 years.

“Today we are witnessing another important step in the extension of the port concession and the consolidation of the logistical potential of our country, Mozambique, which is strategically located to be a logistics hub here in the SADC [Southern African Development Community] region.”

The concession of the port of Maputo to MPDC will remain in force until 13 April 2058, under the terms of the addendum to the contract, approved by decree of Mozambique’s government published in April last year, with the concessionaire planning to invest $600 million (€571 million) in the expansion of port infrastructure over the first three years.

MPDC is a private Mozambican company formed through a partnership between CFM and Portus Indico, comprising Grindrod, DP World, and Mozambique Gestores.

The ongoing expansion of the container terminal at the port of Maputo will increase the quay length to 650 metres and enable it to receive ships of up to 366 metres.

“This modernisation will not only increase the terminal’s operational efficiency but also make freight rates more competitive, directly benefiting Mozambican exporters and logistics operators,” said MPDC, adding that it will also boost mineral and agricultural exports, reduce logistics costs and create new direct and indirect jobs.