Maputo port is now among the routes for the export of coal from Botswana, following the arrival on 26 April of the first train, drawing 40 wagons, loaded with 2,000 tonnes of coal.
This is the result of the agreements reached during the talks between President Filipe Nyusi and his Botswana counterpart, Mokgweetsi Masisi, during the State visit by President Nyusi to Botswana earlier in April.
The Executive Director of Mozambique's publicly owned Ports and Railway Company (CFM), Augusto Abudo, said that the train arrived in Maputo after travelling for 14 hours along the rail lines of Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique. Within Mozambican territory, the train travelled 500 kilometres from the Chicualacuala border in Gaza province to the port.
In the first phase, Abudo said that Botswana will export 32,000 tonnes of coal through Maputo every month, amounting to an average of four trains every week.
Abudo added that, because of the recent increase in international coal prices, it is likely that other coal mining countries in the region may seek the Mozambican ports to export their minerals. Besides Botswana, Abudo said that Maputo has sporadically received commodities from both Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
