Contributions for this section should be sent to the Editorial Office, with the following exceptions:
- Southern Africa - John Middleton, c/o Editorial Office. Email:
- South America - Lionel Price, 9, Liverpool Road West, Oswestry, Shropshire, SY11 1PE. Email:
- Spain & Portugal - Joan Carles Salmerón, c/o Editorial Office. Email:
Contributions which are primarily photographic in nature should all be sent to the Editorial Office to give the best choice of material for covers etc. Similarly historical articles and features should be sent to the Editor. The Editor’s contact details are inside the front cover.
AFRICA
ANGOLA
In early January 2023 the Angola Telegraph reported that the Angolan Government had finalized a US$3.2 billion concession agreement for operation of the Lobito Corridor for a period of 30 years. The concession is with Trafigura (a global logistics company based in Switzerland) and Mota-Engil (an engineering company based in Portugal) each with a 49.5% stake with Vecturis (Belgium based) holding the remaining 1%). There is an option to extend the contract by a further 20 years should the concessionaire commit to construct a branch from Luacano to Jimbe, Zambia. Alexandre Canas a representative of the consortium, has stated that the company has already invested around US$550 million, of which around US$450 million has been spent on the purchase of new locomotives, although these have not yet been identified. The Lobito corridor comprises the 1344km Benguela Railway, which runs west-east from the port of Lobito on the Atlantic coast to Luau in Angola, continuing to Ndola in Zambia, through the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with a total length of 1866km. The Benguela Railway in Angola was substantially rebuilt with the support of a Chinese group between 2007 and 2014 following damage caused during Angola’s 27-year civil war, which ended in 2002. The line predominantly carries minerals extracted from the copperbelt region of DRC and Zambia for export from Lobito as well as some passenger services, which will
