Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 31 May – Van Oord has been awarded a dredging and maintenance contract for the port of Beira, Mozambique, the Dutch company announced.

The note released last Thursday in Rotterdam indicates that the state-held Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique is the contracting party for the 37 million euro project, part of which will be paid by the Netherlands under its ongoing cooperation with Mozambique.

Van Oord specified that it will dredge 8 million cubic metres of sand and lime deposits. Part of the removed material will be used to build a landfill that will later house a coal terminal.

The Mozambican press has reported that Beira’s port was restored in the late 1990s, after which no maintenance dredging was conducted for nearly 10 years due to a lack of means. This led to a build-up of millions of tonnes of sediment.

The dredging by Van Oord should allow ships with capacity of between 25,000 and 30,000 tonnes to again dock at the port of Beira. (macauhub)