South African freight firm Calabash Freight will start using the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA) line under an agreement aimed at maximising the line’s usage, the rail company has said.
The line is an important route for copper exports from Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Africa’s top producer, but the firms transporting the metal struggle with rail capacity challenges.
TAZARA spokesman Conrad Simuchile said Zambia- and Tanzania-based Calabash Freight Ltd, which focuses on rail logistics, had already started conducting trial runs between the two countries.
Mining firms and other bulk cargo firms in Zambia are expected to transport at least 30 percent of their freight by rail under a new law to revive the sector.
Mr. Simuchile said TAZARA planned to hire five locomotives from South Africa to help boost its haulage capacity to meet the huge demand that had been created by the new law.
“These immediate steps we are taking are meant to assure the public and the business community of our readiness to meet the anticipated demand on our services,” he added.
The Zambia Chamber of Mines last week said that the new law on cargo is “economically inappropriate and unworkable” and should be reviewed.
The Chamber of Mines said the rail infrastructure in the country was in poor repair, lacked capacity and adequate security provision.
This is all business that Tazara is missing out on!!
Ethiopian this ,Chinese that ,South African there ,Kenyan firm here, UAE this and Indian guys that…Zambia is being slowly sold to new colonizers.
Access agreements means calabash pays Tazara handsomely for plying on their tracks. If I’m Tazara, I get that money and inject in my operations. I get that money, I capacitate my operations. Since these agreements last a short while, by the time it expires, I would have raised $100M needed to better my railway business with procurement of all the required extra equipment. Good move Tazara.
If I was Tazara I would go to take on that business of moving that cargo from the source.
Is this a story? No wonder you only have a few lines to support your headline and then you give us irrelevant background
prof Clive Chirwa had some good ideas;
PF plundered US$120m Euro Bond by kicking out Prof Chirwa.
TAZARA good luck and do not neglect infrastructure maintenance.
Stock rolling is a viable industry if well managed.Tazara & Zam railways is struggling because people on top management lacks knowledge on how to run the business.