US agency concludes assessment of Lobito Corridor
Experts from the International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), a US government agency specializing in supporting private sector financial projects, met last week with the Board of Directors of the Port of Lobito, at the end of an assessment mission of two days to the employees of the Lobito Corridor, which included contacts with the Benguela Railway.
The meeting between the United States (USA) mission, led by the director for Structured Financial Operations at the DFC, Nancy Rivera, and the Board of Directors of the Port of Lobito lasted two hours, in proof of the interest of the North American agency in materialize the expressed intention to support the operationalization of the Lobito Corridor, according to economist Os-valdo Cruz, contacted by our report.
Should developments come to depend on the financing of this operation, predicts Osvaldo Cruz, other national and international investors will join the project, whose port component was presented to the DFC mission by the chairman of the Board of Directors of the Port of Lobito.
Celso Rosas indicated, at the end of the meeting, that he had declared the importance of Porto in the logistics chain, facing challenges linked to the support of a market-oriented development strategy in which investment projects and administrative processes must be combined and focused on optimization of resources, guaranteeing efficiency, quality in service provision and the promotion of economic development.
The manager explained that the Port works as a logistical development hub that, starting from the maritime axis, gives rise to new valences by combining modes and centers such as railway terminals, warehouses and logistics platforms, which allow gains in opportunity and competitiveness, developing, through interoperability, assumptions needed to make the Lobito Corridor operational.
The Port of Lobito covers a total area of around 449,267 square meters of embankment, with eight berths, vertical silos for bulk cereals with a capacity of over 20,000 tonnes, a container park with 330 sockets for refrigerated containers and warehouses for general cargo, dry port and a miner terminal.
It should be noted that the Angolan Government, through the Ministry of Transport, and the consortium formed by the companies Trafigura Group Pte Ltd, Vecturis, SA, and Mota-Engil, Engenharia e Construção África, SA, signed on 4 November last year, the concession contract for the Lobito Corridor.
Over the next 30 years, this consortium will take over the operation, exploitation and maintenance of rail freight transport, as well as the maintenance of all existing infrastructure along the Lobito Corridor.
The value of the signing premium for this concession is US$100 million, a value in line with the amount of other concessions in the transport sector in Angola, making it possible to differentiate competitors based on financial capacity in view of the size of the assets in question.
Economist considers mission as “relevant”
Economist Osvaldo Cruz, based in Benguela, said that the step taken by the DFC specialists, in visiting the assets awarded to the consortium made up of the companies Trafigura, Vecturis and Mota Engil “is very relevant”, insofar as it conveys confidence in the operation of the Corridor from Lobito.
“Confidence is great and significant in the sense that the Angolan population, companies and the State want, once and for all, to see results in the Lobito Corridor, as a development asset based on connecting the domestic economy to the African continent”, he said. .
The Angolan export dimension only becomes possible with the effective materialization of this corridor, made up of the Benguela Railway and Porto do Lobito, with an extensive network of business and business connections along the route.
Osvaldo Cruz considered that at a time of some crisis in the domestic economy, the presence of these investors creates a climate of confidence in the market, where companies maintain the expectation of the emergence of infrastructure that will make the production and supply of goods more competitive.
Concession of port and railway services has been one of the most used ways to promote greater participation of the private sector and risk sharing in the management of companies, resulting in relief for the State in investment operations necessary to guarantee the efficiency of the companies, defended.
But, he noted, the financiers only deliver financial resources from the moment they feel some guarantee and, those that are owed by the Angolan State “are there”, concluded Osvaldo Cruz
