Marperita | Mozambican Logistics and Maritime Services Company

SMIT Amandla Marine is the leading black empowered specialist marine solutions company in Southern Africa, and a value-adding contributor to Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment.

With the assistance of Marperita, SMIT Amandla were able to enter the Mozambican market, in 2010. The First Project involved the long term Charter of the KST Salvo Harbour Tug, to CFM Beira. Marperita provided long-term support for the vessel, providing all related 4PL services. During this contract relationships between CFM and Smit Amandla were fortified and highlighted various market opportunities in the maritime sector.

In 2012 Marperita was fundamental to the success of the negotiations held between Marperita/ Smit Amandla and Vale do Rio Doce, a Brazilian Mining conglomerate for a 3 to 5 year contract of R300m for specialized Tug Services from the Port of Beira.

The contract is for the provision and maintenance of an offshore mooring buoy, covering coal transshipment, technical and contractual management, and two vessels: one being a general purpose tug and the other a support work boat.

Marperita’s assistance in project management involves the organization of a variety of complimentary services for local staff, local procurement assistance, business development consultancy and clearing and forwarding support, amongst others. Smit Amandla’s skills transfer, recruitment and training of Mozambican nationals has been greatly assisted by Marperita.

Marperita was awarded the Agency contract for 3 support vessels and the M.V. Peridot Anchor handling vessel attending the Ben Avon drilling vessel operating in Mozambican territory. The drilling of exploration wells took place in deep water, at the shallow, environmentally sensitive, waters of the Bazaruto archipelago.

Marperita provided full ship agency services, as well as complimentary assistance in the form of crew transfers by helicopter, and consulting for the provision of security vessels (carrying both private security forces and Mozambican Navy forces conducting anti piracy patrols).

Sasol Petroleum Sofala and ENH are the concession holders of Blocks 16 and 19 off Mozambique.

Marperita was instrumental in assisting SAS on the project of the ageing Harbour Tug, “Pungue” owned by CFM. The vessel was towed to SAS for complete refurbishment, which took almost 2 years to complete. Marperita provided consultancy services, vessel agency, towage, and legal contractual support having successfully assisted with communications and conflict resolutions between all parties due to language barriers and understanding and interpretation of cultural differences.

Marperita was awarded the contract for all 4PL support services by Van Oord, during their contract to perform maintenance dredging in the port of Beira, Mozambique. The contract value amounted to approximately EUR 43M. The work began in April 2010 and took approximately eighteen months to complete.

A total of 4 vessels were deployed for the project including two medium to large-sized trailing suction hopper dredgers the Volvox Olympia and the much larger Volvox Delta, a water injection dredger the Iguazu and support tug DMS Eagle.

Marperita provided full agency support for all 4 vessels, some services including all local communications with local suppliers, assistance to local international staff, vessel documentation and certificate management, spare parts clearing and forwarding, ship husbandry, procurement services, and so on. Additional Services included long-term vehicle rentals, and sourcing third party service providers for the duration of the project.

Marperita was instrumental in the success supplying a turnkey solution to Van Oord. Starting with the assistance for local company formation, travel arrangements, travel visas, work permits and accommodation for the full project team.

Marperita undertook the responsibility for both temporary and permanent imports of all project equipment and vessels.

For the reclamation phase of the project Marperita provided a work force of 110 local workers including heavy machinery operators and mechanics to manual labor and armed security.

From 2007 to 2009 Marperita was appointed exclusive Agent in Mozambique for Odfjell Terminals B.V. The project examined the potential for installation of 3rd party storage tanks, in the Port of Matola. The team handled all business interests ranging from assistance with CFM during partnership negotiations and land concessions, local Company formation and closure, Consulting Services, Feasibility study support by obtaining statistics and detailed information on Biofuels Projects in Mozambique, C&F Advice, HR, obtaining Operating Licenses, Environmental Studies and approvals, CPI approval, as well as acting as Vessel and Cargo Agents.

Marperita was appointed exclusive Agent in Mozambique for Audex, from 2008 until 2010. Our function was to assist Audex in the introduction and implementation of their Company in Mozambique, who was acting as a Consultant Engineering Company to IPG Petroleum. Our role included legal assistance, tax advice, human resource clarification, immigration assistance, and other complimentary consulting regarding company formation and licensing.

KoneCranes of Helsinki Finland, appointed Marperita Lda vessel and cargo agent. This project was an extremely sensitive and demanding logistically challenging project with the requirement to berth and offload vessels transporting 2 gantry cranes. The two cranes, ordered by Cornelder de Moçambique (CdM), were loaded onto Special Purpose Vessels. The cranes were fully erected and arrived in Beira during a very short time window, due to huge daily tidal variations. This project proved to be vital to regional development as the Port of Beira that handles cargo to and from Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and the Eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Marperita services were also used to provide full local support, and vessel agency services for the remainder of the installation phase of the project. Our experienced team handled all importation and subsequent exportation of materials.

We provided full local support including travel and accommodation arrangements, third party service supplier contract management, local communications and translation services as well as procurement and full supply chain management.

During 2007 to 2009 Marperita was appointed as 4PL Logistics Company to inform, advise and implement a plan on the Mocing Buofuels Project in Northern Mozambique, Province of Nampula. This included the study of the Port of Angoche, the roads and rail connections from Nampula to the Project surrounding areas of Angoche, as well as connections to Nacala Port. It further included the acquisition of land permits, licenses, soil sampling, management of trial plantations, as well as the arrangement of storage and shipping for the biofuels from Mozambique to the International markets.