Mozambique Ports expand with Rio Tinto

Thursday, 15 Dec 2011

Roads were little more than rubble and there was barely enough working equipment to load cargo at Maputo port in 2003. Then Mozambique brought in Grindrod Ltd and DP World Ltd to operate the harbor.

Since then, a coal mining boom has fueled expansion at the southern African nation’s harbors. Rio Tinto Plc bought Sydney based Riversdale Mining Ltd for AUD 3.4 billion in July to add 25 million tonnes of Mozambican coal to its annual output.

Clinton Duncan resource analyst at Avior Research Ltd in Johannesburg said that “Rio Tinto has been buying up a lot of assets in Mozambique, and they stand to be one of the significant beneficiaries there.”

The number of ships docking at Maputo has almost doubled to 1,030 a year since 2003, while coal exports have climbed from 1.5 million metric tons to more than 4 million tons and chrome shipments are set to reach about 2 million tons, a five-fold increase, said Ricardo Roberts, commercial manager of the port.

Mozambique is attracting exporters, such as Rio Tinto and Sappi Ltd from neighboring South Africa, which is burdened with high port costs and a lack of rail capacity.

Exxaro Resources Ltd and Coal of Africa Ltd are bringing shipments from mines in northern South Africa to Maputo as the miners face restrictions in using South Africa’s Richards Bay port.

A coal-mining boom is fueling development in the southern African nation after a 16-year civil war that ended in 1992 destroyed infrastructure. Durban, South Africa-based Grindrod is spending as much as $800 million to boost capacity by 20 million tons at the coal terminal in the next four years.

Cargo-handling capacity at the Maputo port, 286 miles north of Durban harbor, is set to climb to 50 million tonnes by 2030 from about 13 million tonnes currently, according to David Rennie, Grindrod’s executive director of ports and terminals. Grindrod and DP World of Dubai have a 25% stake each in the port and the government owns the rest.

(Sourced from Bloomberg)