Mozambique’s publicly owned ports and rail company CFM has raised 106 million US dollars through the sale of part of its stake in the Nacala Integrated Logistics Corridor (CLN), reports that daily newspaper “Noticias”.
CLN runs the coal terminal at the new port of Nacala-a-Velha and the 900-kilometre long railway from Nacala-a-Velha to the Moatize coal basin in the western province of Tete, via southern Malawi. It is a consortium between the Brazilian mining company Vale, the Japanese company Mitsui and CFM.
According to Transport Minister Carlos Mesquita, CFM has retained assets in CLN. He added that the sale has allowed CFM to improve its cash balance.
In June, the government also authorized the sale of the shares held by CFM in the Northern Development Corridor (CDN), which runs general traffic along the railway from Nacala to Entre-Lagos in Malawi, and in Central East African Railways (CEAR), which runs the Malawian rail network.
Vale is making a huge loss in Mozambique, amounting to 212 million dollars in the first half of this year. Its production cost for coal at the port of Nacala-a-Velha in Q2 was 103 dollars per tonne, whilst the benchmark FOB price of Australian high-grade coking coal was just 84 dollars per tonne.