Der Lobito-Korridor verspricht mehr als nur Mineralienexporte – doch KMU, eine schwache Logistik und vom Staat abhängige Unternehmen offenbaren einen tieferen Konflikt zwischen rasanter Rohstoffgewinnung und einer wirklich inklusiven Wertschöpfung.
Foto von Susan Hutton auf Shutterstock
The Lobito Corridor is a strategic transport route anchored by the rehabilitated Benguela Railway. It links the Atlantic port of Lobito in Angola to the Copperbelt mining regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Zambia to facilitate the export of minerals and bolster the integration of regional trade. Discussions of the Lobito Corridor often emphasise that, compared to other existing routes, the 120-year-old, 1,300 km Benguela Railway line is a much shorter route to the port from the Copperbelt region of the DRC and Zambia, and that its upgrade is envisioned to achieve more than just transporting mineral exports, but to be a catalyst for broader economic development through value addition in sectors such as mining, battery production and agro-processing. Whether this ambition translates into practice depends on the interplay between infrastructure development, investment incentives and state capacity. Where state-level policies frequently reiterate the importance of value addition, it is questionable whether they are designed in consideration of the actual business conditions on the ground.
Beyond the mining companies that may use the Corridor, its most prominent industry actors are represented by the concessionaire: the Lobito Atlantic Railway (LAR), which is a consortium comprising the commodity trader Trafigura, the infrastructure developer Mota-Engil and the railway operator Vecturis. In addition, independent businesses have emerged in value-added activities, such as Pensana Plc’s rare-earth elements (REE) processing and Flying Swans’ fruit exports logistics platform. These players demonstrate the Corridor’s potential to attract factor endowment-driven enterprises outside the concessionaire framework, although their emergence also highlights the continued importance of state facilitation and partnership.
The business landscape of the Corridor also reflects notable geopolitical dimensions, with established businesses being aligned or affiliated with the West, particularly Europe. The Angolan government’s role in facilitating the establishment of some of these businesses in the Corridor, alongside its hosting of the 2025 US-Africa Business summit in June 2025, could be an indication of the country’s ambition to strengthen ties with the West.
This paper seeks to explore the realities of implementing value-adding business activities in the Lobito Corridor. It adopts a descriptive lens but aims to draw insights into what drives or constrains establishment of value creation activities. Providing a snapshot of some of the business players involved along the Corridor with a focus on the Angolan territory, it also critically examines the extent to which their activities contribute to value addition. The paper also demonstrates the involvement of the Angolan state in some enterprises through state-owned structures.
The paper is organised as follows: Firstly, it discusses value addition as the impetus for establishing the Lobito Corridor. It then describes the commercial dynamics along the Corridor. Following this, it investigates the key business players and their potential for value addition. With references to the Lobito Corridor Investment Promotion Authority (LCIPA), an entity established to promote investments, the paper highlights its challenge to demonstrate establishing businesses in the Corridor. The paper concludes by highlighting potential drivers and limiting factors of businesses in the Corridor.
According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) policy brief on the Lobito Corridor, the Corridor will provide impetus for value addition and exports in minerals, including those considered ‘critical’ energy transition minerals. This ambition is further reflected in the trilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the DRC, the US and Zambia, which seeks to develop an integrated value chain extending from raw material extraction, to processing, manufacturing and assembly.
The concentration of endowment-driven economic activities along the Corridor’s Angolan route could present significant opportunities for the creation of added value. However, translating such natural potential into industrial outcomes requires effective linkages, supporting infrastructure and access to markets. The region around Huambo, with its fertile soils, is Angola’s most naturally suited agricultural hub and serves as a key asset for the broader Corridor. It is also home to the Agronomy School of Angola, underscoring its strategic role in agricultural development. Five hundred kilometres east lies Luena, whose expansive floodplains offer ideal conditions for rice cultivation and are known for honey production.
Luau, located at the end of the railway line on the border with the DRC, has been established as a logistics platform with intermodal facilities, serving primarily as a key trading point with the DRC. At present, it largely handles construction and food materials. Most goods being exported into the DRC from or through Angola are exchanged at Luau with Congolese buyers. Benguela, located less than 30 km south of Lobito at the opposite end of the railway line, has historically served as an important industrial hub. These endowments could offer a comparative advantage to businesses seeking to establish operations along the Corridor, though the degree to which these translate into actual value addition remains limited.
Before discussing the value-adding potential of existing business operations along the Lobito Corridor, it is important to consider the commercial environment in general. In addition to the LAR running cargo trains on the railway line, there is also Caminho de Ferro de Benguela (CFB), the Angolan passenger rail operator. Reports claim that the LAR has poached workers from the CFB2: the equipment condition varies greatly between the two, with the latter reportedly being in such a deplorable state that the transit of passengers over the 280 km between Luena and Luau is said to be close to inhumane. Some have even observed that the LAR consortium could do well to donate some passenger coaches to the CFB as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR).
Presently, from east to west, LAR wagons are loaded with copper and cobalt concentrates, and, in the opposite direction, with sulphur and fuel for the Congolese mines. Meanwhile, CFB trains carry goods reportedly weighing less than three tonnes for the local trade. Considering the lack of roads (one is currently under construction between Luau and Luena) or other means of transport, the railway infrastructure is crucial for local trade. However, CFB trains are currently inadequate. The disconnect between freight-scale efficiency and local accessibility underscores a broader tension within the Corridor’s development model: efficiency for exports versus inclusivity for local enterprise.
This raises doubts regarding the viability of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) along the Corridor, since they will most likely not have a viable logistics service. This points to a dire need for either Angola or the parties to the Lobito Corridor Transit Transport Facilitation Agency Agreement (LCTTFA) to consider investing in the CFB’s operation.
Given the context outlined above, we may ask: What role are commercial actors playing along the Lobito Corridor, and to what extent do their activities advance the broader objective of fostering value addition? The following section reviews the most prominent existing players and the nature of their contributions.
When asking which industry players could drive value addition, the LAR consortium members naturally arise. Trafigura,3 one of the world’s largest commodity traders, invested over USD 140 million building logistics and multi-modal platforms along the Corridor before winning the operating concession. In both Lobito and Luau, this infrastructure is still visible. Although Trafigura’s motivation was unclear at the time – given that the line was being rehabilitated and operated by a Chinese company – it was likely assessing the railway’s potential well before it formally joined the bid for the operating concession.
Mota-Engil,4 a Portuguese-owned and domiciled entity, has been operating in Angola and involved in several infrastructure projects since its establishment in 1946. While it is a member of the LAR consortium, it is curious that it makes no reference to the Lobito Corridor on its publicity and social media platforms. Lastly, Vecturis5 is a private rail operator first established in South Africa in 1995, but now headquartered in Belgium.
While these three companies may have won the concession to operate the Benguela Railway there is nothing to suggest that they, together or individually, have any experience or indeed drive to contribute to value addition in the Lobito Corridor. Their operational footprint appears confined to logistics rather than industrial diversification. If anything, the commercial agreements6 that Trafigura has signed with various mining companies in the region suggest that its primary motivation for joining the LAR consortium is to facilitate the trade and transport of mineral products,7 rather than to support value addition in the area. On the ground, it is clear that the LAR consortium members are simply transporting the minerals and metals as per the customers’ requirements, reflecting a continuation of extractive rather than transformative economic patterns.
The other notable players in the Corridor are Pensana Plc and Flying Swans. Pensana Plc is a London Stock Exchange (LSE) listed entity, in which the Angola Sovereign Wealth Fund has a 10% stake. It is developing one of the world’s largest and highest-grade REE deposits at Longonjo, in the province of Huambo, about 320 km from Lobito. It will also produce chemically refined materials for export via the Lobito Port.
Flying Swans is a development company focused on creating supply chain infrastructure in emerging markets to facilitate the export of perishable goods. In Angola, they run the Caala Logistic Platform. One of their objectives is to export avocados out of the Huambo area into Europe, for which they are already certified.8 The Caala Logistics Platform is a partnership between the government of Angola, represented by the Angolan Regulatory Agency for Cargo and Logistics Certification (ARCCLA) and the government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, through its Embassy in Angola and the Flying Swans consortium.
Both Pensana Plc and Flying Swans demonstrate the value-added activities that could be undertaken in the Lobito Corridor. They also illustrate that where value addition does occur, it tends to arise from state-facilitated ventures anchored in specific local endowments rather than from broader private-sector dynamism. Furthermore, while the LCTTFA seeks to foster effective participation of SMEs in value chains in the Corridor, it should go without saying that this will not be achieved without resolving the logistics challenges faced by these entities.
The answer to the question of what drives business involvement in the Lobito Corridor is multi-dimensional. Private sector involvement is driven by complementary commercial interests that provide a strong business case for engagement in the Corridor. Trafigura’s substantial investments to secure a role in operating the Benguela Railway suggest that the business case for the line is strong and well understood. Its participation in both westward transportation of cargo from the mines in the DRC, and the eastward transportation of commodities such as fuel and sulphur, highlight its potential profitability in the cargo business. Mota-Engil’s involvement is linked to the opportunity to redevelop the railway line and potentially to be involved with the greenfield construction of the spur into Zambia. And as long as trains are operated, Vecturis will no doubt be involved.
The facilitative role of the state is a critical enabler of independent value-adding businesses in the Corridor, as was demonstrated with Pensana Plc and Flying Swans: The Sovereign Wealth Fund as a vehicle in the case of the former, and the Regulatory Agency for Cargo and Logistics as the driver in the case of the latter. Although based on a limited sample, the two cases seem to demonstrate that the involvement of state actors through financing instruments or regulatory facilitation plays a major role in establishing businesses in the Corridor. This suggests that the Corridor’s development may remain state-dependent until deeper private-sector ecosystems emerge.
However, it is also clear that factor endowments matter. The REE ore deposits in the case of Pensana, and the fertile arable lands of Huambo province in the case of Flying Swans, suggest that the entities to be established within the Corridor for value addition could be driven by these endowments.
The role of the Lobito Corridor Investment Promotion Authority (LCIPA) remains uncertain. Its launch in 2023 was meant to help establish and develop businesses in the Corridor. Though the LCIPA has been active in disseminating messaging about developments and opportunities along the Corridor, there is no publicly available evidence that it has facilitated any investment deals to date. Unlike typical investment promotion agencies, which are state-owned, the LCIPA is privately owned by Lerna Group LLC, a company for which no public information appears to be readily available, limiting transparency around the facilitating role it could play in the Corridor. This opacity may in itself deter potential investors and undermine confidence in the Corridor’s governance framework.
Two worlds co-exist along the Benguela Railway line of the Lobito Corridor. The LAR uses modern equipment to haul hundreds of thousands of tonnes of mining materials and concentrates. The CFB, on the other hand, is an overcrowded, erratic transit train relying on inadequate equipment to transport passengers and small cargo of up to three tonnes. The limitation of small cargo to the passenger trains means that SMEs involved in business and trade in the Corridor have very poor logistics services. This arrangement is suboptimal for the operation and functioning of SMEs, which have been touted as drivers of value addition in the Corridor. This LAR-CFB duality encapsulates the Corridor’s current paradox, where a modern logistics backbone facilitating raw exports coexists with underdeveloped local enterprise potential. Another parallel universe exists in the form of Pensana being set up in the Corridor to add value to minerals on one hand, while on the other hand raw minerals are transported along the Corridor for export.
Finally, both value-adding ventures established in the Corridor involve the Angolan state, suggesting that public sector participation is a prerequisite for investment. In the absence of deliberate industrial policy and infrastructure support, private initiatives alone are unlikely to deliver the value-addition objectives often ascribed to the Corridor.
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Judy Hofmeyr and Eszter Szedlacsek for their invaluable support, and constructive feedback throughout the development of this work.
[1] Factor endowments are a country’s factors of production which include raw materials, natural resources, etc.
[2] This is based on interviews with investigative journalists who toured the route from Lobito to Luau on the CFB train. The interviews were conducted via an email questionnaire which was sent out and was responded to between 25th April and 3rd May 2025.
[3] Trafigura is one of the largest physical commodities trader groups in the world, with offices in 48 countries and a workforce of 13,000. It is ranked 3rd in the world behind Vitol and Glencore, with revenues of USD 319 billion in 2022
[4] Mota-Engil is a Portuguese construction and engineering group established in 1946 and has had a presence in Angola since then. It has 41,000 employees and is present in 25 countries.
[5] Vecturis is a private railway operator providing transport services worldwide for passengers, mining products and commercial cargo
[6] For example, on 7th February, 2024, Trafigura and the Kamoa-Kakula Copper Complex in the DRC signed a reserve capacity agreement to transport between 120,000 and 240,000 tonnes per year of copper blister anode or concentrate for a period of five years starting in 2025.
[7] The Lobito Atlantic railway is expected to ramp up export capacity to one million tonnes per year from 2030, of which Trafigura expected to handle 450,000 tonnes.
[8] This information is based on interviews with economic development professionals based in Luanda, Angola.
Dr. E. D. Wala Chabala is an independent economic policy and strategy consultant and MBA lecturer. He previously served as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, as a business executive in a FTSE-100 financial services firm, and as CEO of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Zambia.
This short analysis is funded by the Stiftung Mercator Foundation as part of the Geopolitics and Geoeconomics of Africa-Europe Relations Project.
