Portuguese infrastructure group Mota-Engil, which is partly owned by China’s CCCC, has signed an agreement for the concession of rail services and logistical support for the Lobito corridor in Angola.
Mota-Engil will manage the strategic infrastructure linking the Angolan coast to hinterland countries in a consortium with Singapore’s Trafigura and Vecturis of Belgium.
The group said that the concession of rail services and logistical support for the Lobito corridor will enable “a key route connecting the mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo to Lobito port in Angola and from there to the international markets”.
Mota-Engil Africa has a 49.5 per cent share in the consortium and will be responsible for the exploration, management and maintenance of the road infrastructure for the transport of goods, minerals, liquids and gases to the corridor that connects Lobito to Luau, in eastern Angola, close to the border of the DRC.
With an initial term of 30 years, the agreement provides for a total investment of US$450 million, of which US$166 million will be for infrastructure and US$70 million for rolling stock.
Earlier this year, China International Trust Investment Corporation and Shandong Port Group won the public tender for the management and operation of Angola’s Port of Lobito Multipurpose Container and General Cargo Terminal.
The concession, for a period of 20 years, followed a public tender in which the Chinese bid surpassed another by the Philippine group ICTSI, according to the appraisal report of the final proposals. ICTSI had already lost the tender for the management of the Port of Luanda terminal, which went to DP World, from Dubai.
The CITIC/SPG consortium proposed to pay US$100 million on the date of signature of the concession contract, and a maximum volume of 2.78 million tonnes of cargo per year, as well as increase containerised cargo capacity to 100,000 TEU (unit equivalent to a 20-foot container) per year until the end of the concession.
