The decision comes a few weeks after the Mozambican government approved a resolution authorizing the Ministry of Transport to renegotiate the terms of the Port of Maputo concession with MPDC to secure an additional $2 billion investment.

The government of Mozambique has approved a 25-year extension of the contract to operate the port of Maputo to the MPDC (Sociedade de Desenvolvimento do Porto de Maputo) consortium, a joint venture led by DP World and also comprising Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique, Grindrod, and the Mozambican company Mozambique Gestores.

The new agreement extends MPDC's exclusive right to operate the port until 2058, when it will invest USD 2 billion in increasing the platform's capacity.

Under the terms of the new contract, the planned investments should enable the port's current capacity to be increased to 54 million tonnes per annum by 2058, compared with 37 million tonnes at present. Container terminal facilities will also be upgraded to handle 1 million TEUs, compared with the current 270,000 TEUs.

Business at the Port of Maputo has grown rapidly over the past two decades, with traffic rising from 5 million tonnes in 2003 to 31.2 million tonnes in 2023. This was due in part to the decline in performance at South African ports, where much of the traffic was diverted to neighboring ports.

The port expansion plan, if realized, will complement the numerous investments underway to develop secondary ports (Beira, Nacala) and railroads, with the aim of transforming the country into a strategic logistics hub for the region, particularly South African mining companies and landlocked neighboring states such as Zimbabwe, Zambia and Botswana.

Agence Ecofin