Mozambique: Work on Macuse port to begin next year – AIM report

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Mozambique: Work on Macuse port to begin next year – AIM report

9:33 CAT | 30 Nov 2020

Source: Thai Moçambique Logística SA: TML / @ tml.co.mz

Work to build a deep water port at Macuse, in the central Mozambican province of Zambezia, should begin in 2021, according to Orlando Marques, chairperson of Thai Mozambique Logistics, the company that holds the lease on Macuse.

Speaking on Thursday at an international conference on investment in Zambezia, held in the province’s second largest city, Mocuba, Marques said building work will be complete in 2023, and the port will start operations in 2024.

Cited by the independent television station STV, Marques said “we have launched the international tender for the construction of the port. We shall open the bids on 11 December”.

In 2013, the Mozambican government granted the Macuse concession to the Thai company Italthai Engineering, which holds 60 per cent of Thai Mozambique Logistics. The other shareholders in Thai Mozambique Logistics are the publicly-owned ports and rail company, CFM, and the Zambezia Development Corridor (Codiza).

The concession covers the construction and operation of Macuse port and of a new, 620 kilometre long railway linking Macuse to Chitima in the Moatize coal basin in Tete province.

Macuse was initially envisaged as a coal port, and as a possible alternative to Nacala-a-Velha. Most of Mozambique’s coal exports use the railway from Moatize, across southern Malawi, to the new mineral port at Nacala-a-Velha. The railway to Macuse will be considerably shorter, and will pass exclusively through Mozambican territory.

Macuse.tmlogistica — *Source: Thai Moçambique Logística SA: TML / @ tml.co.mz*

Marques put the cost of the Macuse rail and port complex at 3.2 billion US dollars, of which about 400 million dollars is currently available.

The governor of Zambezia province, Pio Matos, asked why the new port and railway have taken so long to get off the ground, since they have been spoken about for more than a decade.

The project must cease to be a dream, he urged, calling for commitment so that the port and railway advance, to the benefit both of the investors and of the public.

A new village is being built at Sopinho, to resettle people moved from the area of the port. Marques said 63 houses, a health centre, roads a market and a small water supply system will be built at Sopinho.

Source: AIM