With a culture to secure metal materials needed for the energy shift at its heart, South Africa’s trains are instantly receiving international attention and attracting billions of dollars in investment. Governments and traders are prepared to revive decades-old bridge lines that have fallen into disrepair and build new ones from Angola on the country’s east coast to Tanzania on the west.
The main African copperbelt, which Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo communicate, accounts for a large portion of the new cargo demand.
Truck log jams are currently blocking roads out of Congo, which last year overtook Peru as the second-largest metal producer for electric vehicles and data centers that fuel the growth of artificial knowledge. Zambia’s ambitious plans are intended to elude its north neighbor. There is a growing awareness that road may play a crucial and strategic function in allowing exports to stream, from the US and the European Union to China.
The Southern African Railways Association’s quarterly meeting in Johannesburg this week was clear on the rise in interest. Attendance was up by about 50 % from last year, with many first-time delegates from around the world, according to the organisers. The US is funding its second metal sale, which was headed for Baltimore, through a rail road from Congo to an Angolan harbor, which was loaded with$ 553 million in development funding during the week. Amos Hochstein, a top adviser to President Joe Biden who has led the US efforts to develop the so-called Lobito hall, called the occasion a BFD- small for big offer, with an expletive.
Next month, the Zambian government hopes to sign a deal with China that will fund the$ 1 billion renovation of the Dar es Salaam, a port in Tanzania, that connects its copper mines.
In South Africa, which has the country’s biggest rail system, state-owned shipping operator Transnet SOC last month got a$ 1 billion loan from the African Development Bank to help increase its rail-recovery programs.
Despite growing need for business pathways for essential materials used to create EVs, several of southern Africa’s rail lines are still deteriorating despite years of neglect. That’s brought a$ 10 billion backlog for maintenance, said Johny Smith, head of rail at logistics firm Grindrod.
