ZAMBIA STOPS SENDING COPPER THROUGH SOUTH AFRICA

  Zambia has stopped sending its copper
  exports through South Africa, the official Times of Zambia
  said.
      The newspaper yesterday quoted highly placed sources as
  saying the state-owned Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM)
  was diverting its mineral exports away from South Africa, but
  it did not say which alternative routes were being used.
      ZCCM officials declined to comment on the report, but
  Standwell Mapara, general manager of the Tanzania-Zambia
  Railway Authority (TAZARA), told Reuters recently virtually all
  Zambian mineral exports had been channelled along the TAZARA
  line to Dar es Salaam for the last three months.
      During that period no Zambian copper had been shipped
  through Zimbabwe to the Mozambican port of Beira - the only
  other available route which avoids South Africa, Mapara said.
      Last December TAZARA carried 36,000 tonnes of Zambian
  mineral ore, the line's record for any one month period, he
  added.
      Copper, cobalt and other mineral exports account for 95 to
  98 pct of Zambia's foreign exchange earnings and President
  Kenneth Kaunda told Reuters in a recent interview it was vital
  for his country to assure new outlets for them, avoiding the
  traditional route through South Africa.
      Referring to Zambia's preparations for a possible cut in
  economic links with South Africa, Kaunda told Reuters in an
  interview on March 1, "My main concern, of course, is the mines
  because whatever happens we must continue to run the mines."
      According to Mapara, TAZARA handled 1.1 mln tonnes of
  freight last year and is still working well below its present
  1.4 mln capacity. Kaunda said that once preparations had been
  completed for evacuating Zambia's mineral exports on safe and
  dependable routes his government would look to increase its
  usage of TAZARA for other types of cargo.
      The 1986 annual report of Zambia's state-run Metal
  Marketing Corporation said 81 pct of the country's metal
  exports were channelled through Dar es Salaam last year, versus
  79 pct in 1985. The report said Zambian copper production fell
  to 463,000 tonnes last year from 526,000 in 1985.
      Despite the official optimism about diversifying Zambia's
  export routes, diplomatic sources in Lusaka expressed
  reservations about the capacity of Dar es Salaam and Beira
  ports to handle all of Zambia's mineral exports, even if they
  could be hauled there by train.
      "The two ports cannot in any way and in their present form
  handle the huge exports of Zambian copper," one western diplomat
  said.
      "A serious disruption in copper movement to the markets
  could be brought about as it would pile up at the two ports
  which lack the facilities and space to handle the copper
  tonnage," he added.
  

