By Nelson Banya
(Reuters) -Lobito Atlantic Railway (LAR) aims to finalise by the end of this year a $533 million loan deal with the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) that is vital for the upgrade of its Angolan concession, LAR's CEO told Reuters.
The U.S. development lender pledged the loan in 2024 to support the revamp of 1,300 kilometres (800 miles) of railways and provide a quick route to haul minerals that are critical to the global shift to cleaner energy.
Angola in 2022
handed LAR, a consortium of Trafigura, Mota-Engil and Vecturis SA, a 30-year concession to operate the rail link and provide a quick route for copper and cobalt exports from the Democratic Republic of Congo through the Lobito port on the Atlantic coast.
The company's newly appointed CEO Nicholas Fournier said the U.S funding was close to being concluded, despite concerns triggered by President Donald Trump's reversal of Biden-era climate and energy policies.
"There will be no change. I know lots of people try to put this as a geopolitical thing, but it's really a commercial transaction we are doing," Fournier told Reuters in an interview.
"There is an army of lawyers on both sides discussing the last comma and everything, so it's going in the direction. We're hoping to have this completed before the end of the year," he added.
Fournier said LAR expected volumes on the Lobito line to double following ongoing upgrade work funded by the consortium partners, which have committed $555 million in investment.
"We want in 2026 to double, doing 40,000 tons a month, one way and 40,000 tons the other way. And then continuing to be able to do 1.5 million tons a year during this decade," he said.
LAR's cargo trains move mainly copper and cobalt to the Lobito port for export markets. They also haul sulphur mostly to DRC mines as well as agricultural commodities and industrial products from the port.
(Reporting by Nelson Banya. Editing by Mark Potter)
