Mozambique: Quelimane port dredging now set for January – report

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Mozambique: Quelimane port dredging now set for January – report

2:23 CAT | 09 Nov 2020

File photo: O País

Because of the silting up of its access channel, manoeuvring basin and docking berth, the port of Quelimane, in Zambézia, has not been accepting large vessels for three years now, Jornal Domingo reports.

The Mozambican Dredging Company (EMODRAGA) is currently awaiting the approval of the public Ports and Railways of Mozambique company (CFM), the port manager, to start removing sediment and debris, adds the same source.

Estimated at around US$1.5 million, the maintenance intervention was originally scheduled for February last year but failed to transpire, and was further delayed by the coronavirus pandemic. Now, the work is expected to start in January next year.

Jornal Domingo has learned that the slowdown at the port of Quelimane was brought on by the prohibition on cutting and transporting wood, the port’s main export to Asia.

Once timber operators stopped using the port, CFM called a halt to maintenance works, the port serving only Zambézia province, and its maritime traffic being largely diverted to Beira.

In the past, Quelimane port saw a regular traffic of large ships, and a 90-kilometer rail line was used to transport goods throughout the province.

CFM last week purportedly received a proposal from a multinational company interested in operating the ports of Quelimane, in Zambézia, and Vilanculos in Inhambane.

Details were hard to come by, but our reporter was assured that the dredging would be carried out so as to deliver the facilities at Quelimane to the company in perfect operating condition.

Source: Domingo