Maputo, Mozambique, 3 June – Coal exported by Brazil’s Vale from Moatize in Mozambique will have to be transported in trucks from the mines, in Tete province, to the port of Beira, in Sofala province, in order to keep to the deadlines announced by the group, according to Mozambican newspaper, O País.

Vale Moçambique, which has a coal mine in Moatize, recently announced that the first load of coal for export would be shipped in July from the port of Beira and, would supposedly be transported there along the Sena railroad.

Mozambique’s Transport and Communications Minister, Paulo Zucula, this week announced that conclusion of work to rebuild the Sena railroad would be delayed until September and therefore if Vale plans to transport the coal to the port of Beira along the railway the company will not be able to meet its export deadline.

Zucula said that the delay in conclusion of the reconstruction of the Sena line had been delayed because work was being carried out to correct some errors found in the work originally carried out.

Indian consortium Ricon, made up of state companies Rites and Ircon, via an international public tender in 2004 acquired 51 percent of the central Mozambique railway system for a period of 25 years, in which the Mozambican state owns 49 percent, via state company Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique.

The acquisition of the rights to manage railway company Companhia dos Caminhos-de-Ferro da Beira (CCFB) gave the Indian consortium the right to rebuild the Sena railroad, which links Moatize, in Tete province, to the port of Beira, in Sofala province, central Mozambique, which had been at a standstill for 27 years following its destruction in the country’s civil war. (macauhub)