2023-07-18 16:30:34
Gaston Mutamba Permission
On July 4, the Heads of State of Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia met in Angola for an official ceremony. This was to initial the agreement to operate the Lobito Corridor Railway. The Lobito Atlantic Railway consortium has been selected to operate the rail corridor. The consortium includes the companies Trafigura (Swiss trader), Vecturis (Belgian railway operator) and Mota-Engil Engenharia e Construcao Africa SA (Portuguese public works and railway company).
The project covers the operation, operation and maintenance of rail transport. A 30-year concession contract, with the possibility of a 20-year extension, was awarded to the consortium which aims to link Kolwezi in the Democratic Republic of Congo to the port of Lobito in Angola. It will make it possible to evacuate products from Congolese mining regions to the Atlantic Ocean.
At the end of the agreement, the line will be extended to Zambia. It is not only about the transport of minerals such as copper, cobalt, lithium but also agricultural and miscellaneous products as well as passengers. The rail corridor currently extends over a length of more than 1,700 km, ie 1,340 km in Angola and nearly 440 km in DR Congo.
In January, Angola signed an agreement with DR Congo and Zambia to develop rail and port infrastructure linked to the Angolan port of Lobito. This project will open up the Congo and Zambia, which export their products via the ports of South Africa (Durban) or East Africa (Dar Es-Salaam in Tanzania and Beira in Mozambique).
A faster and cheaper journey
According to a report by the Bloomberg agency, dated November 2022, on the road to southern Africa, the Kasumbalesa border post (before entering Zambia), constitutes a bottleneck. This is the route most commonly taken by Congolese cobalt and all Copperbelt exports to Zambia. Trucks can be stuck there for up to two weeks in traffic jams. The whole crossing, from mine or processing plant to a South African port can take a month. In addition to the reduction in travel times, logistics costs will also decrease. The European consortium led by Geneva-based commodity trader Trafigura hopes to reduce the travel time between Kolwezi and Lobito to less than 36 hours, with at least six trains a day within the next five years.
To do this, the Lobito Atlantic Railways consortium will invest 555 million dollars, partly financed by the United States, for the renovation and modernization of the corridor. An amount of 455 million dollars will go to the 1,344 kilometer railway in Angola and around 100 million dollars for the 400 kilometer railway in DR Congo. The US government announced on May 22 an investment of $250 million in infrastructure development in the Lobito Corridor to connect and expand trade and economic activity in Angola and Congo. The investment will be made through the US government agency International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). According to the Voice of America radio station, this project, costing 555 million dollars, should make it possible to develop the export of copper ores, among other things, regional trade and to strengthen Angola’s ties with Western countries.
Stretching over around 1,700 km, this railway line was built 100 years ago by British investors. But the Angolan part of the line was closed at the height of the civil war that ravaged the country between 1975 and 2002, and then abandoned. Rebuilt by a Chinese company, it reopened in 2015. But traffic never really picked up, with around one train every two weeks according to Vecturis, the Belgian operator that manages it and is now part of the new concession. The Congolese part, which dates back to colonial times, has been poorly maintained by the National Railway Company of Congo (SNCC). The track experiences an average of three derailments per day due to the dilapidated state of the tracks and lack of maintenance. The locomotives run in many places at only 2 km/h (two kilometers per hour).
Expect resistance
It goes without saying that the rail corridor will make it possible to increase customs revenue, evacuate agricultural products and promote cross-border trade. But several interests are at stake. Documentary, quantitative and qualitative fraud will decrease since the Kasumbalesa border post will no longer be the only one concerned in mineral shipments. The mafia and the gangs which gravitate around the operations of customs clearance will be put out of circuit as well as all those who live of anarchy in Kasumbalesa.
The implementation of the project also risks colliding with other interests. Rail will compete with the activity of road transport of minerals. Many companies that operate the trucks, commonly called trucks, are at risk of closing. The same applies to toll companies on the road, which will see their income decrease. To this must be added the workers of the SNCC, a one-person public limited company with a board of directors. The SNCC will have to be able to concede to the Lobito Atlantic Railway consortium the management and operation of the Sakania-Lubumbashi-Likasi-Tenke-Kolwezi-Dilolo railway. The SNCC also uses several thousand workers, while Lobito Atlantic Railway plans to recruit and train around 1,600 people only.
It will therefore be necessary to provide for a social component, otherwise we will be faced with demands from the workers’ unions. It will be necessary to rely on the experience and expertise of the Belgian company VECTURIS. In June 2008, it signed an assistance contract with the SNCC. The three States (Angola, Congo, Zambia) which are also members of SADC (Southern African Development Community – Southern African Development Community), will have to jointly develop harmonized laws, policies, regulations to develop the Lobito railway corridor.
Gaston Mutamba Permission
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