January 25th, 2021, Lobito – Benguela
The Evaluation Committee for the Public Tender on the Lobito Corridor’s Concession held today, January 25th, at the Lobito Central Station, the public act for accepting proposals to the tender Nº 2/2021 for the Concession of Rail Services and Support Logistics of the Lobito Corridor. The following consortia of companies, which presented their bidding, have been admitted to the tender:
Trafigura, Mota Engil and Vecturis consortium
The CSC consortium – CITIC, Sinotrans and CR20
Both consortia of companies presented some concerns regarding the admission of bids. The Evaluation Committee promptly addressed these concerns and decided that those were not enough to exclude a bid.
The public tender for the Lobito Corridor Railway and Support Logistics Services Concession was launched on September 8th, 2021, to ensure the economic viability of the railway infrastructure from Lobito to Luau, in compliance with the Public Contracts Law, the tender documents, and international best practices.
The concession will have a term of 30 years, which may go up to a maximum of 50 years, as defined in the tender documents. During this period, the concession holder will transport large cargoes, predominantly minerals and fuels. Public service of passenger and small cargo transport will remain under the management of Benguela Railway.
The concession aims to guarantee the maximization and economic potential of the Lobito Corridor railways infrastructure. Due to its economic advantages, this initiative presents itself as a platform to dynamize the provincial and national economies, resulting in direct and indirect jobs for Angolan citizens. It will also increase Angola’s exports and indirect investments in multimodal platforms, terminals, and other satellite logistic infrastructures along the line, promoting the local communities’ economic, social, and cultural development by stimulating all economic activity along the entire concession’s perimeter.
The concession terms also foresee the integration of the Mining Terminal at Lobito Port.
The reactivation of the Lobito Corridor is also part of the Executive’s efforts to strengthen regional integration and materialize the sub-region’s commitments, pointing to the future possibility of Atlantic-Indian interconnection with the railway’s connection to the port of Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania.
The operation of the Lobito Corridor involves additional investments along the Lobito/Benguela/Luau railway route, including, on the one hand, the integration of a contiguous railway across the border in the Democratic Republic of Congo. On the other hand, the construction of a branch line to the Republic of Zambia.
The Lobito Corridor has been an object of significant investments by the State recently, totaling about 1.9 billion USD in the reconstruction of the railway and connection with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), efforts whose benefits may now have the opportunity to be recovered.
For more information regarding the contestants and bids are available at https://www.mintrans-tenders.ao.
Ministry of Transports in Benguela, January 25th, 2022.