By Nicholas Bariyo
Zambia's sole railway copper export route through Tanzania
reopened Friday, ending a two-week closure after workers resolved a
wage dispute with management, the Tanzania Zambia Railway
Authority, or Tazara, said Friday.
Workers agreed to end the strike action after the Zambian
government paid them outstanding salary arrears of up to four
months on Thursday, ending the standoff, Conrad Simuchile, the
Tazara spokesman said in a statement.
The reopening comes as a major relief to Zambian miners who have
been unable to ship copper through the 1,860-kilometer line since
the start of the month.
"The unionized workers on the Zambian side had gone on an
illegal work stoppage to press for the payment of their salaries,
which remained unpaid due to the longstanding operational
challenges," Mr. Simuchile said. "Both the shareholder governments
have indicated that they are committed to finding long-term
solutions to the Authority's operational challenges"
Intermittent shutdowns of the troubled line continue to hit
Zambian miners who ship as much as 15,000 metric tons of copper
through the line every week.
The unreliability of the line has compelled miners such as First
Quantum Minerals Ltd. (FM.T), Glencore PLC (GLEN.LN) and Vedanta
Resources PLC (VED.LN) to resort to the more expensive road
transport to ship minerals.
Tazara's performance has deteriorated sharply from the 1980s
when it carried around 1.2 million metric tons of freight a year,
due to lack of investments. In recent years, it has carried only
about 300,000 tons of cargo annually.
Tazara is jointly owned by the Tanzanian and Zambian
governments.
Write to Nicholas Bariyo at nicholas.bariyo@wsj.com
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