Beira Coal Terminal
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Beira coal terminal, known locally as Terminal de Carvão Cais 8 or by the acronym TCC8, is a coal export terminal at Beira port, Sofala province, Mozambique.
A second terminal, New Coal Terminal Beira (NCTB), was proposed at the site starting in 2014 but never developed.
Location
Beira coal terminal is located at Beira port, Sofala province, Mozambique.
Background
The US$200 million Beira coal terminal began operations in 2012 as a joint venture between mining giants Vale and Rio Tinto, together with Mozambique's national port and railway company CFM (Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique).[1] The terminal is linked by the 660 kilometre-long Sena railway to Moatize, Tete province, the current center of Mozambique's coal mining boom, where multiple companies operate mines.
Brazilian mining giant Vale, the first major company to start producing thermal and metallurgical coal from the Tete basin, reported in August 2011 that it delivered its first coal by train from its Moatize mine project to the Beira port.[2] Between August 2011 and January 2012, Vale exported 246,000 metric tons of coal using Beira port's pre-existing infrastructure.
In February 2012, the current Beira coal terminal was officially opened.[3] Despite the terminal's announced annual capacity of 6 million metric tons, first year exports were projected to be only 5 million tons, split 80%-20% between Vale and Rio Tinto[4], and in 2014 CFM officials acknowledged that actual capacity remained lower than anticipated due to limitations in rail and port infrastructure.[5]
In 2014, Rio Tinto sold all of its Tete basin coal holdings, most notably its Benga mine, to the Indian group International Coal Ventures Pvt Ltd (ICVL). ICVL announced that it planned to significantly increase coal production at the Benga mine - from five million tonnes annually to 12 or 13 million tonnes - and export 60% of its output to India.[6]
In 2015, commercial operations began at Vale's new coal export terminal in Nacala, several hundred kilometers to the northeast of Beira in Nampula province and linked to the Moatize coalfields by a new railway line. By 2017 Vale Moçambique projected that its coal exports from Nacala port would greatly exceed those from Beira (18 million metric tons from Nacala vs only 4 million from Beira).[7]
In 2017, coal exports from Beira were slashed in half when Vale announced that it would transfer 100% of its Mozambican coal port operations to the Nacala Coal Terminal. Nacala's natural deep-water harbor and state-of-the-art facilities offer significant advantages over Beira, which requires regular dredging. Vale's departure from Beira left only two coal companies, Jindal and ICVL of India, still operating at Beira, with total 2017 exports of two million tonnes vs the five million tonnes originally projected for the port.[8]
Following Vale's departure, the Beira export terminal has continued operating, exporting more than 2 million tonnes of coal annually. ICVL's Benga mine remains a key customer for the Beira terminal, having shipped 1,184,560 tonnes of coal to the port by rail in 2024 (918,973 tonnes of coking coal plus 265.587 tonnes of thermal coal).[9] Jindal also continues to export coal from its Chirodzi mine through the Beira terminal, as evidenced by recent company reports.[10] In March 2026, Jindal confirmed future plans to export coal from its Revuboè mine (currently under development) through the Beira terminal.[11]
Annual coal throughput figures
Export amounts through the port of Beira in recent years were as follows:
- 2016 2,474,800 tonnes[12]
- 2017 2,654,400 tonnes[12]
- 2018 2,087,800 tonnes[13]
- 2019 2,206,100 tonnes[14]
- 2020 2,377,300 tonnes[15]
- 2021 2,661,600 tonnes[16]
- 2022 2,751,300 tonnes[17]
- 2023 2,021,100 tonnes[18]
- 2024 2,377,170 tonnes[19]
Project Details
- Operator: CFM (Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique)[20]
- Location: Sofala province, Mozambique[21]
- Annual Capacity (Tonnes): 6 million[22][23]
- Status: Operating[19]
- Start year: 2012[24][25]
- Type: Exports[19]
- Coal source: (current) Benga[9] and Chirodzi[10] mines, Tete province, Mozambique; (future) Revuboè mine, Tete province, Mozambique[11]
Articles and resources
References
- ↑ "Terminais de carvão e de contentores: Investimentos que devolveram a reputação do porto da Beira", Noticias Online, September 18, 2013.
- ↑ "Vale Mozambique Coal Reaches Port; Eyes Aug Export" WebWire, accessed August 11, 2011.
- ↑ "Concluído terminal provisório de carvão na Beira", A Verdade, February 28, 2012.
- ↑ "Porto da Beira duplica capacidade de carvão", Moçambique para todos, May 5, 2012.
- ↑ "Sistema Ferro-Portuário da Beira: Capacidade intacta", Noticias Online, June 2, 2014.
- ↑ "ICVL to nearly triple coal output from mine bought from Rio Tinto", Reuters, August 1, 2014.
- ↑ "Vale Moçambique plans to start exporting coal via port of Nacala-a-Velha in 2015", Macau Hub, March 14, 2014.
- ↑ "Mozambique Logistics: Vale diverts its coal exports to Nacala-a-Velha terminal," The Mozambique Resources Post, November 15, 2017
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Relatório Independente da Iniciativa de Transparência na Indústria Extractiva (p 146)" (PDF). ITIE Moçambique. 2026-03-31.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Presentation on Mozambique Operation and Project (pp 2, 3, 6)" (PDF). Jindal Africa. 2025-02-28.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Mozambique: Chapo inaugurates coal mine in Tete". Club of Mozambique. 2026-03-16.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Informação Estatística Anual 2017 / Annual Statistical Information 2017 (p 26)" (PDF). CFM. 2017.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Informação Estatística Anual 2018 / Annual Statistical Information 2018 (p 28)" (PDF). CFM. 2018.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Informação Estatística Anual 2019 / Annual Statistical Information 2019 (p 28)" (PDF). CFM. 2019.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Informação Estatística Anual 2021 / Annual Statistical Information 2021 (p 28)" (PDF). CFM. 2021.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Informação Estatística Anual 2021 / Annual Statistical Information 2021 (p 28)" (PDF). CFM. 2021.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Informação Estatística Anual 2022 / Annual Statistical Information 2022 (p 27)" (PDF). CFM. 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Informação Estatística Anual 2023 / Annual Statistical Information 2023 (p 27)" (PDF). CFM. 2023.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 "Informação Estatística Anual 2024 / Annual Statistical Information 2024 (p 34)" (PDF). CFM. 2024.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Demonstrações financeiras para o exercício findo em 31 de Dezembro de 2025 (pp 11-12)" (PDF). CFM (Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique, E.P.). 2026-06-04.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Volume de carga contentorizada no porto da Beira poderá crescer 34 por cento". AIM News. 2025-05-05. Retrieved 2026-10-29.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Port Development and Competition in East and Southern Africa: Prospects and challenges (p 132-133)" (PDF). World Bank Group. 2018-12-31.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Maintaining and Operating the TCC8 Coal Export Terminal Since 2011". Nectar Group. 2021-06-24. Retrieved 2026-10-29.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Coal terminal inaugurated at port of Beira in Mozambique". PortNews. 2012-06-06. Retrieved 2026-10-29.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ Felix Ciguenza, Operations Manager, Beira Coal Terminal TCC8 (2014-07-22). "Presentation to 5th Annual Mozambique Coal Conference". Nectar Coal Handling Mozambique (NCHM). Retrieved 2026-10-29.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: url-status (link)
