[2019-12-30] Angola’s CFB takes delivery of first lot of train wagons ordered from Chinese group

Source: Macauhub

The management company of the Benguela Railroad (CFB) has received the first lot of 60 wagons of 300 ordered from Chinese company Sinotrans Changhang to boost cargo transport, particularly from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), to the port of Lobito, for export, the Angolan press reported.

The chairman of CFB; Luís Teixeira, said that these 60 wagons had cost US$3.6 million and added that when the company has received the entire order, which would happen in the first half of 2020, it will have spent around US$23 million. The new wagons are part fo a drive to increase cargo transport from 94,000 tonnes per year to over 300,000 tonnes per year, including manganese and copper from Katanga, DRC.

Luís Teixeira noted that Sinotrans is part of the copper production process of a mining project in the DRC, which is due to start operating in 2021. CFM will transport the mined ore, from Luau to the port fo Lobito, along the Lobito corridor.

This first lots of wagons have increased CFM’s rolling stock to 217 cargo wagons and 56 locomotives, of which 48 were purchased from US multinational GE Transportation, and 66 passenger carriages.

With a railway line of 1.344 kilometres, from Lobito to Luau, in Moxico province, eastern Angola, on the DRC border, and 67 stations, CFM already carries the ore to the Port of Lobito, under the terms of a cooperation agreement signed with DRC railway company SNCC.