Starting in 2018 coal handling in Northern corridor in Mozambique will increase from 8 million to 22 million tonnes per year as a result of three addenda to contracts of the Northern Logistic Corridor (NLC) and the Northern Development Corridor (NDC).

The addenda were signed by the government of Mozambique, represented by the Transport and Communications Minister, Carlos Mesquita, mining company Vale Moçambique and port and rail manager Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique to improve the transport capacity of the Northern Corridor and ensure the viability of investments of over US$3 billion already made by concession-holders.

Under the agreements Brazil’s Vale will have exclusive access to financing to ensure that the operations on the railway line between the Moatize coal mines in Tete province and the port of Nacala-a-Velha, in Nampula, “are more efficient and make the goods that use the route internationally competitive.”

At the signing of addenda Mesquita said “the agreement even exceeds national logistical concerns and creates conditions for all these logistics to have a regional impact. In particular for Malawi which, in a way, has a strategic working relationship in this project.”

The Northern Corridor project, led by Brazilian multinational Vale and by Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique, connects Moatize, in Tete province and the port of Nacala-a-Velha, in Nampula, crossing through Malawi, over a distance of around 1,000 kilometres of new railway built by the consortium.

Source: Macauhub