Maputo, Mozambique, 14 Feb – Portugal and Mozambique plan to set up a company to produce locomotives and rail trucks to be used to carry coal mined in Tete province, Rádio Moçambique reported in Maputo.

Citing Transport and Communications Minister, Paulo Zucula, the radio station said that Mozambique needed at least 600 rail trucks over the next five years, to carry coal from Tete province to the port of Beira, in Sofala province.

The Mozambican minister met Friday in Maputo with the Portuguese Public Works, Transport and Communications Minister, António Mendonça, with the aim of setting up partnerships between the two states.

At the end of the meeting with the Portuguese minister, Zucula said that countries such as Botswana, Zimbabwe and Swaziland would need more rail trucks over the next few years and added, “This is a business opportunity that is opening up in the region because at the moment only South Africa has capacity to assemble this kind of equipment.” (macauhub)