Thursday, October 31, 2024

China Finances Rehab of Tan-Zam Railway

 Nanyang Technological University posted on 28 October 2024 an article titled "China to Revive East African Railway as Scramble over African Resources Intensifies."  

China signed a memorandum of conversation to upgrade at a cost of more than $1 billion the Tanzania-Zambia Railway (TAZARA) originally constructed with an interest free loan from China in the 1970s.  The line, designed to move copper from Zambia to the port of Dar es Salaam on Tanzania's Indian Ocean coast, has deteriorated and is operating at a fraction of its potential.

TAZARA will also compete in the years ahead with a new US and EU funded railway that will move minerals from the mining areas of Zambia and the DRC to the Angolan port of Lobito on the Atlantic coast.