RLL Container Report - 16 November 2016
From: John Keir, Ross Learmont Ltd. Email: john.keir@telia.com Date: 16 November 2016
Fifty-five million and counting….
Tanzania is the third country in East Africa to commence construction of a standard gauge rail line to replace the dilapidated narrow-gauge network constructed over 100 years ago by the Germans. The country has a population of 55 million and the largest city is the port of Dar-es-Salaam with 4.3 million inhabitants. China’s Export-Import (Exim) Bank has agreed to provide Tanzania with a USD 7.6 Billion loan, which will be used to construct 2,200 km of new standard-gauge railway linking Dar-es-Salaam with cities in central and western Tanzania.
As with the other new rail lines in East Africa, the plan is to drive a standard gauge line right into the heart of the country to link up with the capital at Domodo and then from there to the rail junction at Tabora. The government is committing 46% of the national development budget to support the construction of the single-track rail line, which will be done in four phases. When completed, it will not only unify the Tanzanian nation but will also connect with the neighbouring landlocked countries of Zambia, Malawi, Burundi, Rwanda and the eastern Congo, all of which need the rail line and the port of Dar-es-Salaam as much as Tanzania does to link up with trade partners around the globe.
As with the lines in Ethiopia and Kenya, a key advantage of an electric rail line is that it will cope more effectively with the change in elevation, which has in the past slowed down road transport. By the time the container block trains reach Tabora, they will have covered 820 km and will have climbed 1,240 metres. Similar to the situation in Ethiopia and Kenya, the rich, fertile highland lands are situated between the great inland lakes and the Indian Ocean, through which the line will pass.
The main exported cash crops are tobacco, cashew nuts, coffee, tea, cloves, cotton and sisal. Raw tobacco represents Tanzania’s most important cash crop, increasing in value from USD 169 million worth of exports in 2010 to USD 318 million in 2015. The value of exported cashews grew fourfold in the five-year period, while coffee sales grew by 50% to USD 162 million in the same period. The top export destinations for tobacco are Germany, Russia and Poland, while almost 80% of cashew nuts are exported to India. All of these destinations are well served by the main box trades calling at the container terminal at Dar-es-Salaam.
John Keir, Ross Learmont Ltd.
16 November 2016
Copyright ©, 2016, John Keir