JSE-listed Grindrod’s sub-concessioned facilities, the Maputo and Matola Drybulk Terminals, are considering the expansion of their respective footprints, the Maputo Port Development Company revealed in a statement on February 14.
Grindrod operates a facility in the Maputo main port known as Grindrod Mozambique Limitada (GML), where sized coal destined for the Turkish domestic market and iron oxide/magnetite is exported; and Grindrod’s Terminal de Carvão da Matola (TCM) operates a dry-bulk terminal in Mozambique, handling magnetite and coal.
This expansion is in response to the increasing demand for export capacity.
This will result in GML’s throughput capacity increasing from 1.5-million tonnes to 4.5-million tonnes a year in the first half of this year; and TCM’s current capacity of 7.3-million tonnes a year scaling up to 12-million tonnes a year in the short- to medium term, and to 20-million tonnes a year in the long run.
This is expected to promote port access to the new users and increase South Africa's mineral exports on a year-on-year performance basis.
The expansion of GML’s capacity is under way and a feasibility study for the planned expansion project at TCM has already been completed.
Critical to both projects is unlocking road and rail bottlenecks along the corridor.
The expansion plans are included in the Port of Maputo's new masterplan, which will be presented to the public in early May during the Maputo Port's conference.