Mozambique Government Intervenes on Deserted Plant

The government of Mozambique is seeking a way to reactivate the tyre plant near Maputo. The facility is currently paralysed and the state is eager to find new funding to restore the site to its former glories as one of the nation’s showpiece sites for foreign investors. The factory opened in 1979 as the collaborative effort of the ruling parties of Mozambique and General Tire of the United States. However, since the Americans left in 2003, the plant has stood still for five years, with proposals falling flat and potential investment unforthcoming.

Sergio Macamo, the current National Director of Industry told local news sources that the government “received several proposals, but when the time came to make the investment, they did not advance. Now we’ve given a chance to a company that says it wants to revive Mabor. But if the negotiations with this company fail, then we shall launch an international tender by the end of this year.” With the massive international market for tyres very much established, Macamo hopes that the factory can claim its slice of the pie once again soon.

The factory’s closure seems to be something of a mystery: Mabor was a success story in Mozambique, even during the war of destabilisation. It produced more than 800 tyres a day – plenty to service the relatively small Mozambican market. Mabor exported 35 per cent of its production to South Africa, while other members of the Southern African Development Community – including Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana and Namibia – also purchased Mabor tyres. In 1995, Mabor received the Department of Transport quality certificate from the United States, which raised still further the reputation of its tyres.

No explanation has been given as to why the foreign investors walked away, though when Mabor workers went on strike for a substantial pay rise in mid-2002, threats that industrial militancy could lead to the closure of the plant were in plentiful supply. The factory is 23,000 sqm big, containing equipment for light, heavy and commercial vehicle tyres, as well as for tractors, and inner tubes for all the range of tyres it manufactured.