Over the past two decades, Angola’s post-war reconstruction has received significant help from China, including in the areas of railways, highways, ports and hydroelectric dams.
China’s ‘shadow’ in South Africa became apparent in 2002, following the end of a 27-year civil war that devastated infrastructure and the economy, Angola’s President Jose Eduardo dos Santos said, opening the country’s doors to Chinese investors.
America accelerates with Lobito Corridor
However, the United States is currently competing for China’s presence in Africa through a transcontinental railroad called the Lobito Corridor. The railway runs from Angola’s Atlantic coast east through the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia to the Indian Ocean.
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), sub-Saharan Africa is estimated to hold 30% of the country’s important mineral reserves. world.
Austin Strange, an associate professor who majored in political administration at the University of Hong Kong (China), assessed that the United States is increasingly wary of China’s possible market domination in developing countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “Reconstruction of the Lobito Corridor could help improve access to important minerals in the United States and Europe,” said Associate Professor Strange.
The United States and the European Union are investing billions of dollars to transform the Lobito Corridor. In particular, the existing railway line on the 1.344 km long Benguela line (via DRC) was renovated and a new 800 km long railway line was built (via northwestern Zambia). The U.S. Development Finance Corporation (DFC) has raised an initial $250 million to invest in upgrading part of the Benguela Line in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Investments in the Lobito Corridor are part of the $700 million “Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment” (PGII) initiative launched by the United States and G600 countries to balance China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI). Paths to trade networks.
The Foreign Office said in October that the United States had announced more than $300 million in funding to Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia, less than 18 months after a pledge by U.S. President Joe Biden. The United States and the EU are also aiming to secure critical mineral supply chains in Angola, Zambia, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the world’s largest cobalt supplier. Most cobalt is currently exported to China, a leader in the electric vehicle (EV) and green energy sectors.
US President Joe Biden is scheduled to visit Luanda (Angola) in the first week of December. This will be Mr. Biden’s first visit to Africa since taking office in 2021.
Professor Carlos Lopez of the Nelson Mandela School of Government at the University of Cape Town (South Africa) assessed that China has a significant advantage in ensuring access to critical resources and that the United States really wants to strengthen its position in this area.
“The focus on the Lobito Corridor highlights U.S. efforts to reduce China’s logistics dominance by promoting infrastructure and trade routes,” Professor Lopes emphasized.
Ronak Gopaldas, director of risk consulting firm Signal Risk, commented that Biden’s visit to Angola will come amid intense geopolitical competition in Africa.
Recently, Tanzania signed an agreement with the United States that allows expansion of the Lobito Corridor to nickel mines in this East African country. The treaty will help the United States expand access to essential minerals and potentially create a trans-African corridor, Africa’s first east-west rail link.
In addition, TechMe, whose majority shareholder is the U.S. Development Finance Corporation (DFC), has partnered with Tanzania-based Lifezone Metals to open a new facility for nickel processing with the goal of supplying nickel batteries to the global market by 2026. built.
The move comes as the United States and the European Union are imposing high tariffs on electric vehicles imported from China as a trade conflict intensifies between China and the West over risks associated with overcapacity in China’s electric vehicle industry.
According to former Liberian Public Works Minister W. Gyude Moore, the United States and the European Union invested heavily in the Lobito Corridor as an alternative to Chinese infrastructure financing.
“The Lobito Corridor is linked to connecting mineral-rich regions of the continent to global supply chains via rail and ports,” Mr Moore said. “This shows that the West will not concede infrastructure finance to China,” he said.
First, it is necessary for the benefit of the African community
China is expected to maintain its influence in Africa. China has invested a huge amount of money to renovate the Benguela railway section.
Additionally, Chinese conglomerate China Communications Construction also signed a 2022 concession contract for 30-year rail and logistics services with Trafigura, Mota-Engil and Vecturis. and holds shares in joint ventures.
According to Dominik Kopinski, associate professor at the institute, China Telecommunications Construction Group, affiliated with Poland’s University of Wroclaw, held a 32,4% stake in Mota-Engil at the beginning of this year. Meanwhile, China Civil Engineering Construction of China also holds a stake in the Tanzania-Zambia railway (also known as Tazara), which connects Zambia’s Copperbelt region with the port of Dar es Salaam.
Last September, the country of several billion people pledged to spend $100 million to improve the Tanzania-Zambia railway. China Civil Engineering Construction will renovate the railway line, which was built in the 1970s and remains China’s largest foreign aid project in Africa.
Afterwards, the Chinese side plans to operate the railway for 30 years, make profits, recover its investment, and then transfer it to the governments of Tanzania and Zambia.
In particular, Tazara could intersect with the Lobito Railway to create a transcontinental corridor.
According to Sun Yun, head of the China program at the Stimson Center Research Group (Washington), the United States is interested in development projects in Africa, and this time will help the United States expand its presence in the African country. themselves. “The U.S.-China competition is healthy because it provides Africa with options and forces the powers to do better,” the expert said.
But analysts say it would make economic sense to link the Chinese-backed Tazara railway with the Lobito railway instead of building an entirely new railway to the port of Dar es Salaam.
Over the past 120 years, companies from Western and non-Western countries, including China, have invested in maintaining and improving the Lobito Corridor’s railways.
Tra Dao Huynh, professor of international studies at Peking University, argued: “Basically, there is no factual basis to declare the Lobito Rail Corridor a Western project. If the Lobito Corridor and Tazara railway can be connected, that part of Africa could have a true transoceanic railway. “Countries participating in rail projects must first serve the interests of African communities and this is a rational and socio-politically sustainable approach.”
According to Associate Professor Strange of the University of Hong Kong, the element of great power competition obscures the more pressing challenges of identifying, financing and implementing profitable infrastructure projects. “There is a lot of space for Chinese, American and other foreign public and private stakeholders to invest, compete and learn from each other,” said Associate Professor Strange.
According to data from Boston University’s Center for Global Development Policy, between 2002 and 2023, Angola alone received $4.6 billion, equivalent to 4/182,3 of the total $100 million in loans received by Chinese investors. To African countries.
