Trafigura-led group to invest $555m in Angola railway

A group of investors led by commodity trader Trafigura Group plans to invest as much as $555 million in a railway project that will link the Angolan port of Lobito to neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

The consortium, known as Lobito Atlantic Railways, will spend $455 million on the so-called Lobito Corridor — a 1 344 kilometer-long trade route – as well as up to $100 million on a 400-kilometer railway line in Congo, Angolan Transport Minister Ricardo Viegas d’Abreu said Tuesday in a statement. The group of investors includes Portuguese construction company Mota-Engil Engenharia e Construcao Africa and Vecturis SA, a Brussels-based private railway operator.

Lobito Atlantic has been granted a 30-year concession to operate the Lobito Corridor, with the possibility of it being extended to 50 years if the railway is expanded into Zambia, Viegas d’Abreu said. The US has pledged to help finance the project, Angolan President Joao Lourenco said in the statement.

Using the so-called Caminho-de-Ferro de Benguela railway will provide faster trade routes to Europe and the Americas from the copper and cobalt-rich areas of Congo and Zambia, according to the statement.

“The full operationalisation of this corridor will ultimately allow the opening up of mines in Zambia and the DRC, as well as access to and circulation of inputs essential to both the mining and agricultural industries,” Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi said in a separate statement sent to reporters Tuesday.

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