Chronicle EditorBEIRA. — The central Mozambican port of Beira has more than tripled its capacity to handle containers, reports said on Wednesday. Reports from Mozambique said Deputy Transport Minister Manuela Rebelo on Tuesday inaugurated five new access lanes to the container terminal.
The increased facility of movement to and from the terminal, and a three hectare increase in the size of the terminal will allow it to handle 700 000 containers a year, up from the current 200 000.
Dutch company Cornelder, which manages Beira port, invested $6,2 million in the new access lanes, which are intended to increase the competitiveness of the port, and its capacity to attract traffic from other countries of the Southern African Development Community region, such as Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Rebelo said it had always been the government’s dream to make Beira a competitive port, and to ensure a continual increase in traffic through the port. She urged Cornelder to continue its investments so as to reduce the time taken to handle cargo, and to charge “competitive tariffs”.
Speaking at the same occasion, Corndelder managing director, Jan de Vries, said the new access infrastructure would increase the terminal’s capacity to receive containers, particularly at peak periods.
Previously just one road led into the container terminal with one lane in each direction, a situation which caused congestion. De Vries said the inauguration of the new roads in the port, coincided with work to deepen the port’s access channel.
Dredging began last month and will continue until April next year. The deeper access channel will allow ships of up to 60 000 tonnes to dock at Beira at any time of day or night. — New Ziana.
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