Angolan Government’s Ministry of Transport awards concession tender for the Lobito Corridor railway
The Ministry of Transport of the Government of Angola has announced the award of the concession tender for rail services and logistics support for the Lobito Corridor, a key route connecting mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to the Lobito port in Angola and international markets beyond, according to Trafigura's release. The 30-year concession, with the potential of a 20-year extension, has been awarded to a consortium comprising Trafigura Pte Ltd, Mota-Engil Engenharia e Construcao Africa SA (“Mota-Engil”), an international construction and infrastructure management company and Vecturis SA, an independent rail operator.
It is expected that the Lobito Corridor could become the 3rd most important corridor in the SADC region by 2050.
The consortium will be responsible for the operation, management and maintenance of the rail infrastructure for cargo transport, minerals, liquids and gas for the Corridor that links the port of Lobito with Luau in eastern Angola close to the border with the DRC.
As part of the concession agreement the consortium has committed to invest significant capital in improving the rail infrastructure to improve the capacity and safety of the Lobito Corridor, as well as to invest in significant rolling stock for freight operations.
Currently copper, cobalt and other metals are exported from the DRC east via Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, via Beira in Mozambique, or south via Durban in South Africa, a journey that takes several weeks or more. As export volumes have increased from the DRC due to the demand for minerals needed for the energy transition, the roads have become more congested and delays at the border more protracted. This new export corridor utilises existing national rail infrastructure, removes trucks from the roads and offers considerable cost and time savings for miners in the Copperbelt to export to international markets.
The consortium is owned 49.5 percent each by Trafigura and Mota-Engil, with the remaining one percent owned by Vecturis. The concession agreement is expected to be signed in the weeks ahead.
Founded in 1946, with Angola as the first market where Mota-Engil started its operations, today the Mota-Engil Group is a multinational company with operations focused on construction and infrastructure management in the segments of engineering and construction, environment and services, transport concessions and energy.
With a turnover of EUR2,592 mn in 2021, Mota-Engil is headquartered in Portugal and ranked as the 25th largest construction group in Europe. The Group employs 41,000 people and is present in 24 countries in Europe, Africa and Latin America.
Founded in 1993, Trafigura is one of the largest physical commodities trading groups in the world. Trafigura owns and operates a number of industrial assets including a majority share of global multi-metals producer Nyrstar and fuel storage and distribution company Puma Energy; and joint ventures Impala Terminals, a port and logistics provider, and Nala Renewables, a power and renewable energy investment and development platform. Trafigura is owned by its employees and employs over 13,000 people working in 48 countries.
Vecturis is an independent railway operator with more than 25 years of experience managing and revitalising railways, mainly long-distance corridors in sub-Saharan Africa. Headquartered in Belgium, Venturis has multidisciplinary teams located in Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, DRC, Gabon, Madagascar, Mali, Senegal and South Africa. Vecturis has managed, on behalf of the DRC government, and the Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Congo (SNCC), to execute around USD500 million of funding, mobilized from the World Bank.
