One of India's largest private port companies Essar Ports Ltd., part of the India-based Essar Group, has announced that it has signed a 30-year concession agreement with the government of Mozambique to develop a new coal terminal at Beira Port, as part of a Public Private Partnership (PPP) project. The project will be executed through a subsidiary, New Coal Terminal Beira, SA (NCTB SA), which is a joint venture of Essar and Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique (CFM), a public company that manages the Mozambican rail and port systems.
According to Essar Ports, the project will enhance the coal handling capacity of Mozambique by 20 million mt per year in two phases of 10 million mt per year each. Mozambique is estimated to have reserves of over 23 billion mt of coal, which makes the country a major coal exporter that is well placed to cater to the international steel and power industries, especially in India, China, Japan and Korea.
The first phase of this project will be developed at a cost of close to $275 million.