Sena railway

The 660 kilometre-long Sena railway line runs from Moatize, in the centre of Mozambique to the Beira port. The railway line was re-developed and re-opened in June 2010 to facilitate the export of coal from new export coal mines around Moatize in Mozambique. The reopened line has a capacity of only five million tonnes of coal.

The railway line, which was reinstated after the civil war with a loan from the World Bank, is vulnerable to flooding. In February 2013 flooding resulted in the railway being shut down for several weeks forcing Vale and Rio Tinto to suspend exports. The port of Beira also requires constant dredging to remain operational.

Coal exports via the railway line have also been disrupted following violent clashes between the ruling Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo) and its former civil war combatants, Renamo. The Sena railway runs near Renamo's stronghold in the Gorongosa area. In June 2013 Renamo threatened to block the railway line following government trrops moving into the area near Beira Port following an attack on a government arms depot in which six soldiers were killed. Following the clashes Rio Tinto stated that it had "paused our operations on the rail line while we assess the current situation in Mozambique."

Background
The railway line was mined after being mined in 1984 by RENAMO, a rebel group supported by the white minority governments of Rhodesia and South Africa. RENAMO sought to topple the socialist FRELIMO government which gained power after the collapse of the colonialist Portuguese military regime. Prior to this the line carried as mcuh as 2 million tonnes of freight a year and hundreds of passengers a day. Following the ending of the war in 1992, the slow process of removing landmines and unexploded ordinance from along the railway line began, in part with funding from the U.S. government. The BBC reports that demining of the railway was completed in 2006.

Coal developments spur line re-opening
The development of the coal deposits around Moatize and Tete of Riversdale Mining and Vale have been contingent on a substantial upgrading of export infrastructure. Riversdale's stage 1 Benga coal mine plans on exporting coal via the reopening of the Sena railway line from Moatize to the port of Beira and an upgrading of the port facilities.

The redevelopment of the 665 kilometre long Sena railway line was part-funded by a World Bank loan of $104.5 million, "with another $45 million under consideration" according to a 2009 report. A transport adviser to the World Bank, Jose Chembeze, told Reuters that the Biera port could handle approximately 12 to 15 million tonnes of coal per annum per annum. Chembeze stated that a further upgrade of the railway to allow it to handle 12 million tonnes of coal a year were under consideration and that this would cost an additional $250-280 million.

In an investor presentation Riversdale stated that the "Mozambique Government is planning for a new Beira coal terminal with 18 -24mtpa of new capacity to be constructed (additional to refurbished capacity)". The company states that the expansion of Benga would be timed to co-incide with this. Further expansion of coal exports from the Moatize area, the company flags, could require "double tracking, passing loops, signalling & bridge upgrade" on the Sena railway line.

An earlier report cited Mozambique’s Transport Minister Paulo Zucula stating that the government had secured $500m from the Dutch government and the European Union to to build a new railway line from Moatize to the deep-water Nacala port by 2015.

Riversdale is also undertaking studies into the option of dispatching coal from its projects via barge down the Zambezi River as an alternative to relying on the railway.

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Mozambique and coal

External resources

 * CCFB, "Beira Rail Concession", Workshop on Large Project Finance, Maputo, Mozambique, February 7, 2008. (Powerpoint Presentation).