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Mozambique: Illegal Logs Abandoned in Nacala Port
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Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
14 January 2008
Posted to the web 14 January 2008
Maputo
About 750 containers full of logs seem to have been abandoned in the northern Mozambican port of Nacala after the authorities last year foiled attempts to export them illegally to China.
According to a report in Monday's issue of the Maputo daily "Noticias", the owners of the logs, all Chinese-owned companies, have neither claimed them, nor paid the fine imposed by the customs tribunal.
The containers were seized in September, when inspection teams became suspicious that some members of the Nacala district economic services and corrupt customs officials were facilitating the illegal export of precious hardwood logs. A ban on exporting unprocessed precious woods has been in place since June.
The customs tribunal ruled that the eight Chinese companies involved could reclaim the wood - but only after paying fines of 13.5 million meticais (about 556,000 US dollars).
Once the fines are paid, the Chinese could export the wood - but not as unprocessed logs. At the very least, they would have to saw the logs into planks - but there is no sign that any of the companies own sawmills.
So the companies have taken the cheaper option of abandoning the logs - much to the annoyance of the Northern Development Corridor (CDN), the private-led consortium that manages the port. CDN director Fernando Couto pointed out that the containers full of logs occupy a third of the storage space in the port.
Storage fees have now reached 300,000 dollars, but Couto sees little hope of recovering this money from the Chinese. The port has tried without success to contact the eight companies, who may have abandoned Nampula province altogether.
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The port needs the space currently occupied by these containers to deal with Malawian trade. Last week, for example, a ship unloaded a thousand containers, mostly of fertilizer, for Malawi at the port.
"Noticias" reports that the Chinese companies also have large debts to shipping lines, including the cost of hiring the containers. There seems no likelihood that this bill will be paid either.
Pf/ (342)
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| Copyright © 2008 Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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