Transport and logistics company Africa Global Logistics (AGL) has won the concession for the Angolan port of Lobito. AGL intends to make the port a strategic location for the export of copper, a metal massively mined in Zambia and the DRC. Here are the details.

In Angola, Africa Global Logistics (AGL) wins the concession for the port of Lobito. The group has announced a $100 million investment on site. For the time being, exports of copper, the region's strategic raw material, take place on the West African coast. But this could soon change.

The Copperbelt, a mining region stretching from Zambia to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), produces 4 million tonnes of copper and cobalt a year. The port of Lobito, in western Angola, will therefore become a strategic location for exports. "Lobito enables us to serve the European and American economies with shorter transit times".

Philippe Labonne, AGL's Director of Port Operations, told Arthur Ponchelet: "The port of Lobito will enable the Copperbelt to export its copper production under better conditions.

It's a corridor that's going to be very useful as part of the energy transition. The other advantage of Lobito is that it's located on the Atlantic seaboard, enabling shorter transit times to serve the European and American economies.

This new corridor will also be supported by a rail network that has yet to be developed. There is already a section," emphasizes Philippe Labonne. The section known as Lobito-Benguela has been rehabilitated.

And there's another section to be rehabilitated between Dilolo and Kolwezi [two localities in the south of the DRC, editor's note] and also a new rail line to be built with American and European funding to link Zambia to Lobito". These new facilities should boost production in the region to 6 million tonnes of copper per year by 2026.

RFI