{Mozambique’s President Armando Guebuza on Saturday inaugurated a new international airport in the northern port city of Nacala, which is shortly to be Brazilian mining giant Vale’s main hub for coal exports.
\n}<\/p>\n
The estimated cost of $200 million has been partly financed by a loan from the Brazilian state-bank, BNDES. Brazilian company Odebrecht was in charge of the construction.<\/p>\n
The new facility will allow business travellers to avoid the 200 kilometre journey from Nampula, the closest airport.<\/p>\n
Built on a former military airbase, the airport has an initial capacity of 500,000 passengers a year and can accommodate long-distance aircraft including Boeing 747s, according to a statement from Aeroportos de Mocambique.<\/p>\n
Mozambique Airlines (LAM) has been using the airport since December 8, but the new facility has not yet received international certification.<\/p>\n
LAM is still blacklisted in Europe, despite recent progress acknowledged this week by the European Commission in an official statement.<\/p>\n
The airport opening marks a new stage in the development of resource-rich Mozambique’s north, with Nacala already boasting one of East Africa’s deepest natural ports.<\/p>\n
“From a maritime perspective, this is the only port between Durban and Djibouti to have a draft greater than 15 meters,” said Mathieu Freidberg, Africa director for shipping company CMA-CGM.<\/p>\n
A five-year rehabilitation of port infrastructure launched in March aims to increase container traffic five-fold, according to Loni Shott of Portos do Norte, the port operator. <\/p>\n
Vale Mozambique is also about to complete a coal terminal and a 912 kilometre railway linking the Moatize mines, in western Mozambique, to Nacala.<\/p>\n
After being repeatedly postponed, operations are expected to start in the second quarter of 2015, Vale Mozambique CEO Pedro Gutemberg announced this week.<\/p>\n
A $4.4 billion investment, the Nacala logistic corridor \u2013- which encapsulates the port terminal and the railway line \u2013- is expected to handle 18 million tonnes of coal by 2017, increasing Vale’s current export capacity fivefold.<\/p>\n
When the railway is completed, Nacala will be connected to neighbouring Malawi and to copper-rich Zambia, said Shott.<\/p>\n
Nacala would then become an important gateway to the Indian Ocean, with China and India major trading partners.<\/p>\n
“Carriers are seeking alternates to Durban, which is far and expensive,” said Freidberg says.<\/p>\n
“But beyond its obvious natural potential, Nacala still lies far behind Mombassa in terms of infrastructure.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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