The chief executive of Mozambican port and rail company Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique (CFM), Sancho Quipiço Júnior, announced at the 4th Annual Conference of the Port of Maputo that the company plans to invest US$840.3 million by 2016 in the three railways in the south of the country and on buying ne locomotives.

By 2021, CFM plans to spend almost US$1.3 billion, 72 percent of which on purchasing equipment and the remainder on repairing and/or building infrastructure.

At the same conference officials also announced that the port of Maputo was being used by Salgaocar Swaziland to send iron ore to China and that so far the company had exported over 1 million tons.

According to Mozambican newspaper Ponto Certo, 4,500 tons of iron ore arrive at the Port of Maputo every day and the three Mozambican companies hired to unload goods at the terminal are looking into increasing their logistical capacity as Salgaocar Swaziland plans to increase the amount of ore it exports through Maputo by at least 50 percent.

Over the next seven years the Swazi company plans to mine around 20 million tons of iron ore, which will be sent to the port of Maputo for export. (macauhub/MZ/CN)