ROAD TRANSPORT

Mozambique is surrounded by landlocked countries, and its main economic activities remain agriculture and mining, which makes the work of companies involved in the road transport sector crucial for national and regional development.

Ângelo António Macuácua CHAIRMAN, ROAD FUND

DEVELOPING ROAD infrastructure is extremely important because it serves as a social and political project. Road infrastructure unites the country and enables citizens to access essential public services and to be effectively part of the country's development. Our road network consists of around 30,000km of classified roads, but only around 7,500km are sealed roads, representing about 25% of the total classified road network; our goal is to reach a ratio of at least 35-40% sealed roads. The second priority is to better connect the north to the south of the country; at the moment, there is only one road—with bad conditions in some sections—and in the event of a catastrophic situation, the country will be completely divided. We also want to reinforce east-west connections, specifically on the Zumbo-Indico road. More generally, we need to connect agricultural, fisheries, and tourism hotspots in order to offer better opportunities to the rural population. Finally, we need to continue investing in road maintenance; though expensive, this is a crucial task taking into account that Mozambique is a climate-vulnerable country. Last year’s cyclones had a devastating impact on our roads, and it showed us that we need to be better prepared in the future. We have big construction projects underway, such as the Roma-Negomano road, the Tica-Buzi road, and the Nampula-Namitil road. We are also implementing the Integrated Feeder Road Development Project, funded by the government and the Word Bank, and the EU-funded Promove Project.

Pedro Monteiro MANAGING DIRECTOR, AUTO SUECO MOZAMBIQUE

WE ARE THE OLDEST Volvo importer in the world. Since then, we have grown to represent other brands. Auto Sueco has always been connected to the Volvo brand in the markets where it is present, including all the different brands of Volvo group such as Renault, Volvo, UD, and DongFeng. Starting in 2014, Auto Sueco Moçambique is the most recent penetration in Africa for the group. We started in Maputo, being invited by Volvo Group, to represent Volvo trucks and buses, replacing a previous dealer whose performance was not up to Volvo’s standards. We first set out to understand customer demand. We had to bring in knowledge and support to our customers. A truck is not a car, but a tool to work, something that produces revenue; thus, timely assistance is key. We want to be a consultant in that regard, not just selling the equipment, but telling customers how to use, run, and manage their fleets. Overall, we are confident about our performance and our brand. We have grown to become the market leader in the trucks segment. Our strategy in Mozambique throughout 2020 is tied to something that started in 2019, which was our representation of SDLG, a construction equipment brand from Volvo Group. In July 2019, we opened in Beira and Tete, and now we are moving to Nacala. We are planning to move to the north, taking into consideration the growth projection brought by the LNG projects. We are also expanding the business on the construction equipment side as we see a lot of potential in the infrastructure sector.

Tiago Martins REGIONAL MANAGER, TRANSITEX AFRICA

IN AFRICA, Transitex focuses specifically on serving hinterland corridors and connecting them to the sea, and, in this sense, Mozambique presents a similar geography to Portugal and was our natural starting point in Africa. Mozambique was our first market in Africa and is currently the location of our regional head office. Through the years, we have expanded our presence in Africa to six countries. Our main focus is freight forwarding and logistics. We do a lot of project and construction cargo work, managing the full chain logistics for some construction companies as well as designing supply chain model solutions either as consultants or using our own assets. Since 2015, we have also invested heavily in having our own fleet; we have more than 50 trucks in southern Africa, which has enabled us to venture into the distribution sector and last-mile delivery. A central focus for us is to promote logistics corridors together with the logistics corridor management companies, using the ports of Maputo, Beira, and Nacala. If all the stakeholders, including the port, concession, corridor managers and all the competitors work together, we will be able to truly maximize the logistics chains that are already here and develop Mozambique’s potential as a logistics hub. COVID-19 will affect our 2020 performance, but it will not stop us from growing. We are currently clearing agents for warehouses in Angola, South Africa, and Tanzania, and we are further exploring markets such as Kenya and Rwanda.