Mozambique Coal Mining: Vale resumes coal transport along the Sena line

Trains loaded with coal extracted in Mozambique’s Tete province by mining company Vale Moçambique have once again started using the Sena railway heading to the port of Beira, after a standstill of several months, Mozambican daily newspaper Noticias reported.

The newspaper also wrote that the Vale train with four locomotives and 84 wagons loaded with coal, reached the coal terminal at the port of Beira on Wednesday morning.

Before the coal transport stoppage, the Sena railway had a daily average of 22 trains travelling along it in both directions, carrying Vale’s coal, cargo from Mozambican port and railway company CFM and passengers from the communities served by the line.

The return of coal shipments, suspended following two armed attacks that caused minor injuries, the most recent of which in late July, was possible after CFM, which owns the line, took over responsibility for its security.

The Sena railway recently underwent modernisation works, which have increased its cargo capacity from 6.5 million to 20 million tonnes per year, decreasing the number of derailments and increasing the size of the trains, which can now have a maximum of six locomotives pulling 100 wagons.

The work was awarded to Portuguese company Mota-Engil and cost US$163 million.

The Sena line, which is 357 kilometres long and links the port of Beira, via Dondo, to Malawi, includes the Inhamitanga – Marromeu (88 kilometres) branchline and the Dona Ana – Moatize (254 kilometres) section, which is the backbone of the central region of Mozambique and the Zambezi valley in particular. (source: macauhub/MZ)