Update: The 2015 figure published in Noticias appears to have been incorrect. Zitamar News has gained access to figures published by Portos do Norte, the company managing the port, which show that from January to November 2015, Nacala port dealt with 73,780 containers. Read the full update here.
The number of containers passing through the port of Nacala in northern Mozambique fell to 9,000 in 2015 compared with 95,000 in 2014, a 90% drop in traffic which the port authorities have attributed to Vale concluding work on its coal terminal across the bay at Nacala-a-Velha.
Quoted in Noticias on Friday 22 January, port director Loni Ribeiro said the port had benefitted from the coal terminal works in 2013 and 2014, which imported primary materials through Nacala port. Work on the coal terminal finished in 2015, and Vale has now started using it to export coal.
Ribeiro said the port now wants to start winning more business from Malawi, and to get some of the cargo that currently uses Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, or Durban in South Africa, for access to the Indian Ocean. Nacala is Mozambique’s third busiest port, after Beira and the capital, Maputo.
On 19 February, bids will be opened in Nacala to choose the contractor to undertake the next phase of a Japanese-funded expansion of the port’s capacity, to 180,000 containers per year. The port currently has a capacity of 100,000 containers a year, according to Noticias.