13 March 2008
Maputo — Mozambique's publicly owned ports and rail company, CFM, is running at a profit, according to figures given on Thursday by CFM chairman Rui Fonseca.
Addressing the annual meeting of CFM's Council of Directors, held in Maputo, Fonseca said the preliminary results for 2007 indicated a profit of 247.7 million meticais (about 10.3 million US dollars).
He said there had been a growth of five per cent in the amount of cargo handled by Mozambican ports, rising from 10.59 million tonnes in 2006 to 11.09 million in 2007. But there had been a fall, again of five per cent, in the amount of freight carried by rail. The drop was from 775.1 million tonne-kilometres in 2006 to 736.3 million in 2007.
Fonseca blamed this fall mostly on the decline in Zimbabwean traffic using the railway to Beira. But he urged the Council of Directors to work for a complete recovery in rail traffic, and that meant a "redoubled effort", particularly in CFM's southern region.
"We are adopting as a strategy involving our clients in large scale contracts, and investing in rolling stock to guarantee that the cargo is transported to our ports reliably and securely", he said. Shortly, CFM would have 40 completely rehabilitated locomotives available, and would start rehabilitating 670 wagons in its general workshops.
"This is an immediate action, but we also intend to invest in new wagons", he added, "mainly to transport minerals and other bulk cargo from Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Botswana to the port of Maputo".
Fonseca also insisted on the need to deepen the entrance channel to Beira port, so that it could safely accommodate larger ships. He said a new terminal would be built at Beira exclusively to handle coal from the mines at Moatize, in Tete province.
The Brazilian mining giant CVRD has the concession on the Moatize coal basin, and it is expected that once the mines are functioning, and the Sena railway from Moatize to Beira has been fully rebuilt, 20 million tonnes of coal a year will be exported.
A great deal of money is involved. Thus rebuilding the Sena line, which started in 2002 and will continue until 2009, involves a total investment of 178 million US dollars. Emergency dredging of the Beira port access channels and manoevring bays is costed at 37 million dollars. Acquiring an ocean-going dredge that can move 2.5 million tonnes of sediment a year, and repairing the Beira navigation support system will require further expenditure of 40 million dollars. Support for the dredging has been promised by Holland and Denmark.
Management of the main ports, and of the Nacala and Beira rail systems has been farmed out to consortia headed by foreign private companies. Fonseca warned that "managing these concessions is extremely complex, since it involves private interests, foreign and domestic, that are not always in line with the interests of the country and of CFM",
He insisted that "the institutional power of CFM to supervise the concessions" should be strengthened, including through new legislation "since we are really acting as the executive arm of our government in this matter". It was imperative that the consortia holding the leases on the ports and rail lines "should comply scrupulously with the concession agreements they signed with our government".
Fonseca added that that those parts of the network still run directly by CFM (notably the southern rail network, and certain specialized terminals) "must be managed very strictly and efficiently. Rigour within the company should be a principle and not an empty word".
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