DP World has opened a rail service between the container terminal of Maputo (Mozambique) and Harare (Zimbabwe). With this rail service, DP World wishes to develop the transfer of goods from the port of Maputo to South Africa under customs control. Further connections are planned over the next few months, notably to Swaziland and South Africa.

05/31/2021: In Kenya, Athi River processing industrial park is nearing completion. Location: Machakos County. Start-up scheduled for August 2021. Investment: $ 158 million. Area: 200 ha. This park includes 14 tanneries and an effluent treatment unit. Operator: Kenyan Leather Development Council and Export Industry Zone Directorate (EPZA). 50,000 jobs (direct).

05/31/2021: Emmanuel Macron calls for the establishment of a “Marshall plan” to invest in Africa. “The international community must have the generosity to say that we are writing off part of the debt to help Africans build their future. On the condition also that we let its civil society have access to responsibilities, that it does not allow itself to be drawn into networks of corruption and closed governance ”.

05/27/2021: In Burkina Faso, construction of the country's first computer and mobile phone assembly plant by the Burkinabè company "Horizon Industries SA", in partnership with the Chinese company Hier. Location: Ouagadougou (Kossodo industrial zone). Investment: $ 13.9 million. Market: sub-region. Average daily production: 200 computers and tablets.

05/26/2021: In Nigeria, a new coconut oil production unit, called "Gabriel's Coconut factory", will start operations in September 2021. Location: Akwa Ibom state (south-east). The facility will have three production lines with a total processing capacity of 66 tonnes of coconut per day. Most of the coconut oil production is expected to be exported to international markets. Jobs: 1,300 direct and 3,000 indirect. The coconut sector accounts for 10% of Nigeria's agricultural exports.

05/28/2021 Cameroon: GIZ (German cooperation) is funding the establishment of a cotton-textile incubator which aims to support entrepreneurs, start-ups and micro-SMEs. This support will be provided through tailor-made training, technical training, mentoring and consulting services. Products concerned (local and regional market): medical and hygienic products, sofas, mattresses, work clothes, traditional accessories, etc.

In Cameroon, the Chinese company Gaoda International Investment Trading Sarl opens the first factory specializing in the transformation of stones into construction materials. Location: Yaoundé. Area: 2,500 m2. Tools: Two cutters and a polisher. Average production capacity: 5000 tons / day. Investment: 4.5 billion FCFA. Jobs created: 122 (1,000 in the long term). Raw material: granite. Products: tiles, pavers, interior and exterior cladding material….

Rwanda: Start-up of Rwanda's second electric cable manufacturing plant. Location: Nyanza district. Investment: $ 5 million. Start-up: 3S 2021. Production capacity: 35,000 tonnes per year. Products: AB cables, service cables, building cables, flexible cables, multicore cables, underground cables.

Ethiopia: Inauguration of the Bulbula integrated agro-industrial park. Investment: $ 215 million. Area: 271 hectares. Processed products: fruits, vegetables, dairy products, meat, poultry, coffee, cereals. Farmers will be able to supply their products directly to businesses in the agro-industrial park. Before this park, two others had already been put into service, in Yirgalem and in Bure.

Ethiopia: Carvico group builds a 57 kg of synthetic and elastic fabric and export for world class brands. Investment: more than 90 Million USD. Area: 95,000 sqm. Location: Kombocha.

The Egyptian government has reached an agreement with the Red Sea National Refining and Petrochemicals and the Suez Canal Economic Zone Development Company for the construction of a petrochemical complex in the Ain Sokhna region, east of the Cairo. Investment: 7.5 billion dollars. Area: 3.6 ha. Productions: polyethylene, polypropylene, polyester, bunker fuel and other petroleum and chemical products.

EOS Data Analytics (Ukraine), headed by Max Polyakov, acquires South African satellite manufacturer Dragonfly Aerospace. EOS Data Analytics specializes in providing advanced satellite image processing and analysis solutions. The satellites manufactured by Dragonfly are expected to be launched by Firefly's Alpha rocket, a company majority-owned by Max Polyakov and specializing in the development of small and medium-sized launchers for commercial launches in Earth orbit. The acquisition of Dragonfly Aerospace gives EOS the opportunity to manufacture and launch its own small satellites into Earth orbit.

According to the IMF (Regional Economic Outlook in Sub-Saharan Africa - April 2021), the contraction observed in 2020 due to the pandemic, estimated at 1.9%, is a little less severe than expected last October, but it remains the worst result never recorded in the area. Regional growth is projected to be 3.4% in 2021, but output per capita will not return to its 2019 level until after 2022.

Ivory Coast: The traffic of the port of San Pedro reached 4.75Mtons in 2020 (cotton, cashew nuts, minerals, cocoa, palm oil, rubber, cement products). The relocation and expansion of the container terminal started in 2021. It will accommodate 14,000 TEU vessels with 15.5m drafts. It will offer two berths of 800 linear meters on 30 hectares and 8 latest generation gantries. Expected capacity: 1 MEVP.

In Côte d'Ivoire, the "Société Africaine de Plantations d'Hévéas" (SAPH) is starting the construction of its 6th natural rubber production unit. Location: Soubré (south-west of the country). Investment: 17 billion CFA francs. Processing capacity: 60,000 tonnes of rubber per year, then expansion to 120,000 tonnes per year. Planned start-up date: November 2022.

MSC will increase the capacity of LCT (Lomé Container Terminal) from 2.2 to 2.7 MEVP. Investment: € 29.8 million. With 1.36 MEVP handled in 2020, LCT's share in the overall container traffic of the port of Lomé is around 90%, ahead of TogoTerminal (Bolloré Transport & Logistics).

In Zimbabwe, National electronics assembly plant opens. Company: Zimbabwe Information Technology Company (Zitco), collaboration between the telecoms company TelOne, Flushcord Enterprises and the Chinese company Inspur. Products: Smartphones, computers, tablets, ammeters and other ICT equipment. Planned capacity: 50,000 to 150,000 units / year. Workforce: approx. 100 employees. In the short term, the plant will equip 1,500 schools that will be connected to the Internet by June 2021 (March 30th 2021 - The Herald.

The shipowner Hapag-Lloyd, the world's fifth largest container shipping company, acquires the Dutch shipping company Nile Dutch, which is particularly well established in West and South Africa.

The company Le Piston Français (LPF) inaugurated a new factory in February 2021. Location: Nouaceur (33km south of Casablanca). Production: Circular hard metal parts for jet engines. Investment: 6.16MUSD. Area: 0.7ha, of which 4.1ha is covered. Planned workforce: 100 in 2024. LPF opened its first Moroccan plant in 1999. The company operates 3 production sites, in France, Poland and Morocco.

Morocco has 142 companies in the aeronautics sector. Morocco’s dual strategy, in both manufacture of parts and assembly, is beginning to pay off, as the aeronautics sector has become a major contributor to the national economy. The local integration rate reached 38% in 2020.

According to the African Development Bank, the construction of the road corridor between the port of San Pedro (Côte d'Ivoire) and Bamako (Mali) should be completed in June 2021. The journey times which were 6 hours in 2014 on each of the sections going from Zantiébougou to the border of Côte d'Ivoire and from Boundiali to Kani will be brought back between 1:40 and 2 hours. The establishment of a one-stop-shop, the connection of customs IT systems, a vehicle and goods tracking system will make it possible to go from 10 to 3 days for the processing of containers in the port of San Pedro. The border transit of a truck between Côte d'Ivoire and Mali will be reduced from one day to three hours.

Ethiopian Airlines and Air Djibouti have partnered with the Port of Djibouti to provide an air and sea freight platform from Djibouti airport. The goal is to recover around 50% of the 850,000 tonnes of goods that arrive in Dubai by boat to be transported to the African continent by air.

Pasabahce Egypt (a subsidiary of Turkish glassware and glass packaging producer Sisecam) is upgrading its glassware production plant in Cairo, with $ 30 million in funding from the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

Launch of works on the Kano (Nigeria) - Maradi (Niger) rail link. Planned commissioning date: 2023. Work carried out by Mota Engil (Portugal). Investment: 2 billion USD. Link length: 284 km. A secondary link will join Dutse (capital of Jigawa State) to Kano (Nigeria). A significant portion of Niger's import / export traffic now passes through the port of Abidjan.

South Africa: Ford Co is investing $ 1.05 billion to modernize its facilities and increase vehicle production. Location: Silverton Assembly Plant (east of Pretoria). Production increase from 168,000 to 200,000 per year. Investment: $ 683 million (new robotic workshop, stamping unit). Products: Ranger pick-up for the domestic market and exported to nearly 100 countries. Staff: +1200.

In Ethiopia, the Soufflet group starts producing malt in its “Soufflet Malt Ethiopia” factory. Location: Addis Ababa. Initial production capacity: 60,000 tonnes of malt which will eventually be increased to 110,000 tonnes. Barley is supplied from the local sector (Ethiopia is the leading barley producer in Africa with 2.3 Mt/year).

CMA CGM will manage and operate “Pier 55”, the future multipurpose terminal of the port of Alexandria. With a capacity of 1.5 million TEUs, this terminal will be operational in 2022. It will cover an area of 56ha with more than 2km of quays.

In Gabon, the Chinese company Jia Ming Plastics Manufacturing has inaugurated a plant for converting plastic waste into strips. Location: Special Economic Zone of Nkok. The production of recycled plastic straps will be used for the packaging activities of wood exports. Production: 300 tons of strips / month. Direct jobs created: 500. Investment: 1 billion FCFA. The Nkok SEZ is home to 88 companies specializing in wood processing, of which 61 are already operational and 27 are under construction.

Cameroon: Eramet has started the second phase of its exploration work on the rutiliferous block of Akonolinga, in the Center region of the country. The potential of this block is estimated at 500,000 tonnes of rutile.

In 2019, intra-regional trade in Africa weighed 15% of the total total trade of this continent. In terms of containers, according to figures from Container Trade Statistics, intra-sub-Saharan trade weighed 237,000 TEUs during the first nine month of 2019.

Total trafic of Tanger Med harbour reached 5.7 millions TEU in 2020, +18% compared to 2019

The Egyptian company AOI (Arab Organization for Industrialization) and the German company Tönnjes have joined forces to operate an automobile license plate factory. The joint venture was initiated in 2019 at the "Compact with Africa" conference in Berlin. Location: Cairo. Production: 3 to 4 million units per year.