Joining up to increase exports via rail network

Networks expand
For its part, Grindrod has been steadily expanding its logistics operations beyond South Africa and into the rest of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.

It owns and operates coal terminals at the ports of Matola in Mozambique and Walvis Bay in Namibia. The chief executive of Grindrod Rail, James Holley, adds: “We have spent the last few years developing our rail capabilities and growing our capacity to participate in the growth of the Africa rail sector.” Apart from mining exports, the line will be used to import oil from the Lobito oil refinery.

Another option could come via the new line being built from Mozambique’s Tete Province, through Malawi and on through the rest of northern Mozambique to the port of Nacala. The line is being developed by Brazilian mining firm Vale to enable the transport of coal from Tete to Nacala, but additional capacity could be added to serve Zambian miners. A railway connecting Zambia and Malawi opened in 2010.

In the longer term, it is hoped that more ports will come within the reach of Zambian exporters through greater SADC rail integration. This will involve the construction of new connections but also regulatory changes. In January, the governments of Botswana, DR Congo, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe signed an agreement to streamline freight transport within this central north-south core of SADC. The deal aims to reduce the amount of bureaucracy required at SADC border crossings.

Nyameka Madikizela, the head of international business at Transnet Freight Rail, says: “The main objective is to align the five railway lines towards a unified railway system on the North-South Corridor by establishing a Joint Operating Centre in Bulawayo.

“The opportunities exist in copper, chrome ore, etc., where the mines need some confidence in rail and by cooperating through this agreement, we can develop a strategy that will provide capacity immediately.”

Indeed, the agreement is likely to have most relevance to Zambia’s Copperbelt and also copper production in neighbouring Katanga Province, in the southeast of DR Congo.