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J&J Africa News

September 2023

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Source: J&J Africa

Cyclone Idai - May 2019 - Beira corridor is resilient

May 2019

Cyclone Idai hit Beira with full force on Thursday 14th March 2019. Within hours 90% of Beira’s buildings had suffered damages due to winds of above 200km/hour, and coupled with torrential flooding it further worsened an already terrible situation. It left over 1,000 people dead and thousands more missing. Idai is the second-deadliest tropical recorded in the South-West Indian Ocean basin. It currently ranks as the third-deadliest tropical cyclone on record. The cyclone’s exact death toll is expected to never be known. Over 168,000 hectares of land is flooded in the outlying areas and with it destroying entire villages, crops, and livestock. In one-way or another everyone was affected and some lost their lives and others to a varying degree their property or livelihood. It was reported that 5,756 homes were destroyed, while another 15,467 homes were affected. Additionally, eight hospitals and 938 classrooms were destroyed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Idai

BEIRA CORRIDOR IS BACK ON TRACK

Despite the devastation around Beira – Cornelder and major stakeholders have been working hard to ensure all services were resumed and business return to normal where possible. After ten days of being cut off from the outside world all major services – water, electricity, internet, air and road transport links were restored and everyone continues to ensure that Beira rebuilds and comes back better than ever.

J&J Africa has been working very hard to ensure that all our facilities and services have resumed to their full capacity. Beira corridor needs continued support to ensure that the community benefits and the local economy.

Watch the short video BEIRA CORRIDOR IS BACK ON TRACK made on the 7 April 2019 not even a month after the tropical cyclone hit Beira

J&J Africa believe in the community and in the importance of giving back in a time when so many have lost so much. We supported various community initiatives to ensure that the communities affected are able to find a new normality (thank you to all our clients and stakeholders who donated) and we are proud to say we completed our community initiative of ensuring one of the many schools affected has been rebuilt affecting 2,100 children and allowing for them to have a bright future.

Source: J&J Africa

MOZAMBIQUE: BEIRA PORT CONCESSION EXTENDED FOR ANOTHER 15 YEARS

July 10th, 2018

Mozambique’s cabinet extended the concession of the port of Beira, in the centre of the country, to the Cornelder company for another 15 years on Tuesday and approved a $290 million (€247 million) investment plan.

Cabinet spokeswoman, Ana Comoana, said at a press conference that the extension would begin in 2023 when the current 19-year concession ends.

Ana Comoana said the concession was extended because the company had agreed to undertake essential additional investment to increase capacity at the port.

Cornelder’s investment plan foresees upgrading 300 kilometres of national highway 6 and 317 kilometres of the Beira-Machipanda railway line.

These works would increase throughput at the port from the current 300,000 containers to 700,000 and from 750,000 tonnes to 1.2 million tonnes of cargo.

Cornelder is a joint venture between Dutch company Cornelder and the state-owned railway company Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique (CFM).

Source: Lusa

BEIRA PORT: CORNELDER MOZAMBIQUE WANTS TO EXPAND SOUTHERN AFRICAN CUSTOMER BASE

July 6th, 2018

Cornelder Mozambique, a concessionaire company in the central port of Beira, plans to expand its customer base in Southern Africa, focusing on improving the services it provides, the company announced.

In order to mobilise more users to the port of Beira, the company held a meeting in the capital of Zimbabwe, Harare, bringing together more than 200 companies, Cornelder said in a statement.

“It was a very productive meeting, as many of the concerns that were raised were immediately answered,” the company’s managing director, Jan de Vries, is quoted to have said in the press statement.

Jan de Vries said that Zambia and Malawi are also priorities in Cornelder’s business expansion plan.

“We hope to hold more meetings of this nature in the future in other neighbouring countries such as Zambia and Malawi,” he added.Cornelder Moçambique is a company comprised of a Dutch firm Cornelder BV, the public company Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique (CFM) and private Mozambican investors.

In Mozambique, the concessionaire operates containers and general cargo terminals at the Beira port, one of the country’s most active ports.

Source: Lusa

‘Acing’ driver training one card at a time.

October, 2017

A pack of playing cards printed with in format ion on how to drive safely is just one of the training too ls being used by J&J Transport to ensure that the "next generation” of employees needed to keep freight moving are more skilled and better pre-pared than t hose who arenow leaving the industry. "It is 20 years since the founding of J&J, and it is time to prepare the next generation to take over, instilling in them the J&J way," says Despina Nicolau, General Manager at J&J Transport.

The company is identifying " high potential " employees in all departments, developing company-wide training and mentor ship programmes. "We are being careful not to put people in a box. If they show potential outside of their existing job then we encourage t hem to develop new s kills,” she says. There is also a recruitment campaign, which includes the children of existing staff. "It is exciting to see where the baton is being handed from father to son or mot her to daughter." Recruitment criteria include the ability to "think out of the box". Logistics in the region is fluid, with factors such as the weather, politics and the global economy all exerting an influence.

"All employees have to be able to adapt and to make decisions independently in order to keep freight moving," she says.

Source:

GREEN TERMINAL IN BEIRA TO SERVE ZAMBIA AND DRC

August, 2017

Exporters and importers wanting to reduce their carbon footprint while at the same time reducing the risk of delays due to power outages in Beira now have the option of the first “green” terminal in the region.

“Independent Beira Logistics Terminals and Services (IBLT&S) is the first green terminal in Beira,” says general manager Aleksandrs Kucerovs.

The facility, which has 16 000 sqm of warehousing under roof, is now powered by solar panels. “Beira has an enormous solar resource, providing in excess of 8.5 hrs of sunshine per day consistently throughout the year.

“In addition to showing our respect for the environment, going green has made our operations independent of the municipal power supply. “Solar electricity generation represents a clean alternative to grid tied systems. It provides clean energy with no air, water or environmental pollution and provides reliable and stable electricity,” he says.

Each warehouse has its own standalone solar PV system, generating 3KW and 5KW respectively. This provides stable, reliable power to LED High Bay lighting, CCTV and Wifi systems, as well as external LED floodlights.

The systems are designed to provide a 25-year lifespan and comprise the latest technologies for maximum efficiency, providing lowest cost per watt solutions, he says.

The system includes:

Source: FTW online

NEW BULK RECORD FOR BEIRA

November 18th, 2016

Fertiliser vessel discharge productivity in the port of Beira has gone from a maximum of 2 000 metric tons in a 24-hour period five years ago to 7 000 tons, according to Christian Roeder, deputy chief executive officer of J&J Africa.“The performance was made possible through good cooperation between Beira Logistics Terminals (BLT), Cornelder (the port operator) and the vessel agent," he says. The IVS Nightjar berthed earlier this month to discharge 28 000 tons of bulk fertiliser for Zimbabwe. “Our logistics plan combined the bulk transport of 18 579 tons of fertiliser – which was taken to the BLT warehouses outside the port – with the loading of 3 027 tons of bulk directly onto J&J Transport trailers for a customer in Zimbabwe,” according to Roeder.

A total of 21 568.92 tons was offloaded for the client (a large Moroccan fertiliser company) in 89 hours, peaking at 7 097 tons over 24 hours.

“It shows that Beira has improved significantly and has become much more efficient due to investments and procedural improvements by Cornelder and local companies such as BLT which have invested in outside storage facilities. “Very competitive discharge rates can be achieved when clients plan properly and develop combined offtake solutions, such as bagging at the quayside for direct trucking to destination or storage, or bulk offtake for storage and bagging at outside facilities,”he says.

– Ed Richardson

Source: FTW online

Repairs on road between Beira and Machipanda in Mozambique finished in April 2018

October 25th, 2016

Work to repair and improve the N6 National Road between the port city of Beira, in Mozambique’s Sofala province, and the border town of Machipanda, is expected to be finished in April 2018, Mozambican daily newspaper Noticias reported on Tuesday.

Work on the 288-kilometre road, which began in April 2015, is expected to cost US$410 million and is funded by the Mozambican government and the EXIM Bank of China.

Noticias said that 45% of the work was concluded and that by the end of the year a 60-kilometre section would be paved in the districts of Dondo and Nhamatanda, in Sofala province, where a 220-metre bridge is due to be built over the River Pungué.

The refurbishment of the N6 road will also benefit neighbouring countries that use the port of Beira for imports and exports, including Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Source: Macauhub News Agency

Premises expanded to support 1200 – truck fleet

August, 2016

A renewed focus on improving efficiencies within the business is helping clients to weather the present economic downturn in J& J Transport Zambia to continue investing in the country. The company is in the process of expanding its Lusaka premises by 40% to support a fleet of around 1 200 t rucks run by the J& J Group and its partners, according to Oscar Gutierrez, general manager of J&J Transport Zambia.

Included in the investment is the paving of the entire area amongst other infrastructure. The design of the facilities and the systems being put in place to manage them are based on the J&J operations which include warehousing and advanced logistics."We are, in effect, building a multi- user logistics facility," says Richard Tiddy, group commercial manager. "The facility is perfectly positioned to serve as a hub for Zambia and neighbouring countries. "We have already invested in new container handling equipment which allows us to be a lot more flexible," he adds.

Once all development sa recompleted, container unpacking and packing services will be offered on site, and transit. Lusaka. "All the best practices from our experience in Beira are being incorporated into the Zambia n operation in order to maximise efficiencies," says Gutierrez."Customers benefit from greater efficiencies because they get their cargo earlier, and there are fewer delays due to accidents and breakdowns. We are also able to offer more competitive rates," he says.

As part of the efficiency drive customers are also being as ked to rate the service they receive and to suggest ways to improve. "Our flat management structure enables us to be nimble and to make changes quickly where needed," says Gutierrez. One example is that J&JTrans port Zambia is now hand li ng domestic deliveries as well as strengthening cross-border and project cargo in order to improve efficiencies through the maximisation of fully loaded round trips."Our objective is to reduce the number of empty legs in order to bring down costs to our customers," says Tiddy.

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