Ship loading times in Maputo, Mozambique, reduced to two and a half days

The Maputo Port Development Corporation (MPDC) plans to reduce the time it takes to load a 40,000 ton ship at the port to two and half days, said operations manager Alexandre Houane, cited by Mozambican news agency AIM.
Houane also said that reducing the time required to load a ship – until now taking three and a half days – was a result of the MPDC recently buying two mobile cranes to improve efficiency and productivity of the cargo loading process.
The cranes, of the LHM550 series of German company Liebherr, whose production and adaptation to the port of Maputo’s operational requirements took eight months have a lifting capacity of 144 tons.
“A ferro-chrome operation, for example, which under optimum conditions, can load a Handymax vessel (40,000 tons) in three and a half days will now be concluded in two and a half days,” Houane said.
The MPDC also invested in increasing ferro-chrome storage capacity by 1 million tons per year as well as in a diverse range of forklifts, tractors and trailers to ensure smooth and efficient cargo handling.
The MPDC is a private, national company, resulting from a partnership between Mozambican state port and railway company CFM, South Africa’s Grindrod group, DP World of the United Arab Emirates and Mozambique Gestores.
The Port of Maputo was granted under concession by the government to the MPDC in 2003 but gained new momentum in 2008 when Grindrod and DP World acquired a majority stake in Portus Indico, the largest shareholder (51 percent) and sponsor of the project.  MDt/Macauhub