CLM opened up a new channel for the transportation of cathode copper products through the Tanzania-Zambia Railway since April this year.

On the steppe at the central and eastern Africa, the Tanzania-Zambia railway, a major traffic trunk running through the East Africa and south-central part of Africa, which starts from Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania in the east to Kapiri Mposhi in Central Zambia in the west, stretches for 1,860.5 kilometers. Since it was open to traffic officially in 1976, this legendary railway has been in operation for more than 40 years, along which the natural scenery is beautiful and colorful. As a complete set of projects with historical significance of China's aid to Africa, the Tanzania-Zambia railway is a witness to the profound friendship between the governments and people of China, Zambia and Tanzania. However, due to daily maintenance, transportation costs, time costs and other causes, customers hold a wait-and-see attitude towards railway transportation for many years, which makes this section of railway in Zambia lose its former prosperity and become increasingly depressed. In 2018, in order to support railway transport and relieve the road congestion, the Zambian government released a new railway transport act, which required 30% of the heavy goods to be transported by railway, but not by road.

In order to respond to the new railway transport act positively that the Zambian government is designated to revitalize the relatively depressed railway transportation, increase the diversity of transportation modes, ensure the safety and relative timeliness of goods, CLM finalized the details of operation from all aspects through many negotiations with customers and transportation companies, and the first batch of 400t cathode copper was loaded onto Train E62 to Tanzania on local time of April 15, 2019, and arrived at the Port of Dar-es-Salaam 5 days later.

Since the first shipment of copper started on local time of April 15 in Zambia, CLM has transported 2,512 tons of cathode copper via railway as of September 5. Nowadays, about 500 tons of cathode copper produced by CLM will be delivered to customers each month continuously via this railway.

In addition, CCS, an enterprise of the Company in Zambia also opened a railway transportation channel. (Written by Luo Chunhui Pan Bin; Photographed by: Luo Chunhui)