The Lobito Corridor is the largest ever American investment in African railroads. That’s the view put forward by US President Joe Biden, on the sidelines of the kick-off ceremony in Angola for the “Lobito Corridor”, the strategic rail link between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola.
The 1,344 km-long Corridor is designed to ensure the transport of metals essential for the manufacture of vehicles and wind turbines from the mining site to the port.
The Democratic Republic of Congo, with 70% of the world’s cobalt supply, will see a large quantity of its ores, notably copper, transiting through the port, which aspires to handle 3 million tonnes of mining freight a year by 2030.
Rising stakes and job opportunities!
Behind this upturn lie the challenges of creating a new economic dynamic, illustrated by the consolidation of capital gains.
Benoît Munanga, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Congolese company Kamoa Copper, aims to create several thousand jobs.
“We currently employ 6,400 people. With the commissioning of the coming plants, we’ll easily reach 10,000 employees. With the rehabilitated “Lobito Corridor”, there will be knock-on effects from related or associated services that could inject a few thousand jobs due to the use of this Corridor. A few thousand additional jobs,” he added.
https://x.com/USIP/status/1863694738756358579
Tonnage impact and time factor!
Regarding the impact of the use of the Corridor, the Chairman of Kamoa copper’s Board of Directors said: “We’re certainly going to use the Lobito Corridor. And, as an indication, I can tell you that the tonnage we’ll be putting in by 2025 will be a very significant 173% increase.”
With this in mind, he revealed several advantages.
“The biggest advantage is essentially the distance between the Kolwezi mining area and the port of Lobito. We’re talking about a 1,600 km journey, with only one border to cross, as opposed to 3,000 km if we took the port of Durban in South Africa as an example. So the benefit is first and foremost in the cost of logistics. By 2025, 2026, they will be reduced by 18%. And then there’s the round-trip time. By road, a single trip from Durban used to take 25 days. Lobito, on the other hand, takes 8 days. That’s a gain of 17 days”, he declared.
Climate issues: little pollution!
The use of the Corridor should not be limited to simply importing minerals between the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Angola. It will also be used to import materials, including chemical reagents and equipment. In this way, the Lobito Corridor will help mining companies to have a much reduced environmental impact, because emissions are much higher when transported by truck than by rail”, noted Benoît Munanga.
https://x.com/POTUS/status/1864435220109217916
Several insights along these lines indicate that the development of the Port of Lobito could generate up to 500,000 direct and indirect jobs in the region, with positive effects on the local economy, particularly in the logistics, transport and services sectors.
In addition, the same data published by think tanks based on the continent indicate that revenues linked to the port and rail corridor are estimated at 3 billion US dollars per year by 2035.
Flory Musiswa