New Record For Cargo Handling At Maputo Port
Maputo, 24 Jan (AIM) – Maputo port in 2022 achieved a new record for the amount of cargo handled, which grew by 20 per cent compared with 2021, according to a press release from the Maputo Port Development Company (MPDC), which operates the port.
The total amount handled in 2022 was 26.7 million tonnes. In 2021 the figure was 22.2 million tonnes.
The MPDC attributes this growth to efficient use of the rehabilitated quays 6, 7, 8 and 9, which were inaugurated in May 2022, and to the 24 hour a day operation of the Ressano Garcia border post between Mozambique and South Africa.
“The port has certainly been harvesting the fruit of the major infrastructure work undertaken in the past four years, said the MPDC Chief Executive Officer, Osorio Lucas, cited in the release. “But the decision of the Mozambican government to establish 24 hour a day border operations has had a positive impact throughout the Maputo Corridor”, he stressed.
The record for the largest loading of a single ship was also broken in 2022, with a volume loaded of 148,206.26 tonnes.
The amounts of chrome and ferrochrome moved by rail to the port increased by 73 per cent, from 1.4 million tonnes in 2021 to 2.4 million tonnes in 2022.
There was a slight improvement in the ratio between cargo moved by rail and cargo that reached the port by road. In 2021, 21 per cent of the cargo was carried to the port by rail, and this rose to 26 per cent in 2022.
“The rail operators continued to work for a better balance between rail cargo and road cargo”, said Lucas. “The formalisation of single trains between Mozambique and South Africa, without changing locomotives, was a step forward in the continuing search for rail efficiency”.
Lucas was optimistic that the growth in traffic will continue in 2023. “We are implementing a new master plan for the port of Maputo”, he said, “and thinking about the challenges the future presents. We are trying to find creative solutions to increase our capacity to meet the growing demand for the port”.
This includes the acquisition of additional equipment such as mobile cranes to improve the port’s productivity.
(AIM)
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