Port official outlines benefits of Nacala
Nacala Port director Neimo Induna says the expanded facility in Mozambique has the capacity to handle more imports and exports from southern African countries, including Malawi, as its utilisation capacity stands at 40 percent.
He told Malawian business journalists in Nacala yesterday that the deepest port in southern Africa can handle 10 million tonnes of cargo per year.
Breaking down the figures. Induna said the port can handle four million tonnes of container cargo, 2.4 million tonnes of general cargo and 3.6 million tonnes of liquid cargo at its three terminals.
He said: “This is the port for Malawi. You can see for yourself that the port is new, the equipment is new and we don’t have limitations in terms of how much cargo the port can handle and the operations are 24 hours.
“There is no expectation of traffic jams and everything is in place for Malawian traders to use the port of Nacala as the main port.”
The expanded port was inaugurated on October 7 2023 by Mozambique President Filipe Nyusi and his counterparts Lazarus Chakwera of Malawi and Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia.
To illustrate the port’s capacity, Induna said last year, when the facility was launched, it handled a ship that was 300 metres long or three football pitches combined with the capacity of 207 000 20-foot equivalent unit (TEU).
He said the Mediterranean Shipping Company [MSC), a global leader in container shipping, is continuously bringing vessels to the port, which is just 36 hours or three days away from Malawi.
In his presentation, Nacala Logistics commercial supervisor Decio Dias said the port handled 18.9 million litres of fuel destined from Malawi last year, and that this year up to July, the port has already handled 14.5 million litres of fuel for Malawi.
Apart from fuel, other imports and exports from Malawi that pass through the port include fertiliser, wheat, clinker, vegetable oil, sugar, pigeon peas, tobacco and wood.
During the tour, it was learnt that two trains deliver goods to Malawi through the railway and Dias said they are currently moving 52 000 tonnes of clinker for Portland Cement to Malawi.
“We are utilising 25 percent of the total capacity to transport goods through the railway line to Malawi. This means we have the capacity to move more goods to Malawi through the Nacala Corridor railway line,” he said.
During the opening of the rehabilitated, expanded and modernised port in October last year, Nyusi, Chakwera and Hichilema signed three agreements for the management of the Nacala Corridor, which is in the northern Mozambican province of Nampula.
The port of Nacala and the railway system are managed by Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique, a State-owned company.
