Company Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique (CFM) needs US$230 million (17.3 billion meticais) to fund expansion work at the Port of Pemba, which is expected to have increased its operational capacity.
According to the Port of Pemba’s chief executive officer, Arnaldo Manjate, the amount is earmarked for construction work on a new 15-kilometre access road to the port and for increasing the depth and size of the jetty, which would allow two ships of great draught to dock simultaneously.
Manjate stressed that the expansion of the infrastructure would only make sense if operating capacity increased from the current 40 to 65%.
In order to attract more customers, CFM developed actions aimed at improving the operating capacity, specifically the strengthening of the equipment fleet, which makes port activities take place 24 hours a day.
“We have increased our container handling capacity from nine to 12 containers per hour and we also expect to increase the bulk unloading capacity from the current 375 to 500 tonnes per hour,” said Manjate.
Also at the Port of Pemba, according to the source, the mooring manoeuvres of the ships are already done with the support of a tugboat, in addition to the acquisition of a fire-fighting vehicle and the existence of a trained team equipped with appropriate equipment for emergency cases.
As regards the movement of ships and maunette cargo, data provided by the source show that 411 ships docked at the port last year, 551,823 tons of miscellaneous cargo were handled, compared with 251,393 the previous year, and 5,006 containers, compared with 5,529 in 2019.
These figures were made public days ago during the visit to the Port of Pemba by the Secretary of State in Cabo Delgado, Armindo Ngunga, who was aiming to become aware of the functioning of the infrastructure.
It should be noted that the companies Syrah and GK, which exploit graphite in Balama and Ancuabe, respectively, are not using the Port of Pemba for their overseas operations due to alleged lack of infrastructure capacity, which means that the ore is transported by lorries over a distance of 600 kilometres from the production site to the Port of Nacala in Nampula.
