This is the 12th of a series of blog postings from Clare Bottle, who will be telling us about her travels in Zambia - supported by transport charity Transaid - to see what the transport industry is like out there:
On Kevin’s advice, Victor and I left Ndola just after 7am and took the dual-carriageway to Kitwe, arriving at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry office at 8am. Their Research & Marketing Officer is Mwansa Bantubonse. The Chamber has about 130 corporate members whose key logistics issue pertains to infrastructure. Mwansa outlined this dilemma which was soon to become a theme of our conversations with businesses on the Copperbelt.
Heavy mining equipment is best suited to rail transport, but the railways are perceived as unreliable, so the heavy loads go by road instead, exacerbating damage to the road surfaces and reducing the reliability and safety of road transport. The intense demand for road repairs and maintenance, drains public funds, leaving little scope for meaningful investment in the rail infrastructure.
Mwansa referred us to CCI member Translink Freight and we headed over the road to meet George Malanda. Despite our arriving unannounced, George was convivial. He formerly worked in logistics for the multi-national firm Chloride and was encouraged to become a member of both CILT and also the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS). The latter is better established in Zambia than CILT, although George has not maintained his membership of either. Translink operates international trunking, regularly working the popular route between Zambia and South Africa, with a fleet of eight heavy goods vehicles and a consolidation depot in Kitwe. Most shipments are less than four tonnes, almost always palletised, and there may be up to eighteen clients’ goods on one vehicle.
George was keen to see the government facilitate harmonisation of road markings and signage across Southern Africa. For example, he thinks it is unfair that enforcement officials penalise HGVs for driving through Kitwe town centre because although this is forbidden, there are no signs to indicate it.
Our next port of call was Konkola Copper Mine (KCM) at Chingola, about thirty miles northwest of Kitwe. The condition of the Kitwe-Chingola road was the worst I’ve seen on a trunk route in Zambia, with potholes, ridges and ruts unmistakably caused by heavy vehicles. There are comparatively few public or private weighbridges in Zambia and those which exist may not always be accurately calibrated. I have also heard anecdotal stories suggesting that it is cost effective to overload vehicles and bribe government weighbridge officials, although I haven’t seen any evidence of that (except that the road surface speaks for itself).
On arrival at KCM we had some difficulty finding the right entry gate and getting past the security lodge. Mining is booming in Zambia and the valuable copper is closely guarded against theft and loss, as well as individual mines protecting their intellectual property. Kevin had told us to ask for Sam and after 45 minutes grappling with officialdom we finally got to meet him. Although Sam was unable to help with our enquiries he offered to introduce us to the Logistics Manager, Chris.
Chris is incredibly knowledgeable: he used to be the Chief Transport Economist for the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). He apologised that he wouldn’t be able to spend much time with us as he was about to embark on a scheduled tour of the new smelting plant, with his logistics team. I tentatively asked whether perhaps we could come along and this was met with a beaming smile and affirmation from Chris: “the more the merrier” he said. We duly gave our shoe sizes and within an hour we were being kitted out with protective footwear, white coats and hard-hats.
Victor’s delight was palpable: he has already talked to me about the prospect of copper making his beloved homeland Zambia into a more prosperous place for his son to grow up in. To Victor, this visit was “a lifetime’s opportunity” to see it for himself and although some of the technical explanations were too complex for us to follow, the sights we saw can never be forgotten. Sadly photography was strictly forbidden and out of respect for our hosts I can’t describe the smelter in detail. Suffice to say that it will be largest of its kind in Africa, doubling KCM’s output in the next five years.
After the tour, Chris spent a couple of hours talking to us about copper and its related logistics demands. KCM is essentially a transport operator, providing buses and trains to bring people to work and using rail wagons and gigantic dumper trucks to move materials such as ore, slag and lime around their huge site. KCM employs lots of people, including rail engineers and train drivers, and they pride themselves on recruiting the “geniuses of Zambia”. I wondered about competition for staff between the lucrative mining business and the ailing rail sector: given the choice, I know where I’d rather work.
Chris also explained that copper production is relatively expensive in Zambia. In Chile, cathodes (50kg square plates of copper) can be produced at about one third of their cost in Zambia. Whilst the selling price remains high, mining in Zambia is economic, but if the commodity price (controlled by the London Metal Exchange) should drop, Zambia would be the first place to feel the pinch. One of the key components of the high production cost here is the expense of transporting the finished goods 2,000km from Chingola to despatch ports (Dar es Salaam in Tanzania or Durban in South Africa). Infrastructure investments will be essential to cater for the predicted increase in copper tonnages.
Our afternoon at the mine ended with a personal tour in Chris’s comfortable 4x4 (not so much a Chelsea-tractor status symbol; more a business necessity). We were privileged to visit the largest open pit mine in the world and left with our heads spinning from the amazing things we’d seen.
If you’d like to know more and would consider sponsoring me, please visit my charity giving page: http://www.justgiving.com/clarebottle.
Clare Bottle is a freelance logistics specialist, with experience and market knowledge in storage, packaging and transport; she is also a Board Director and Trustee of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport UK.