Maputo

Maputo exists because Delagoa Bay exists—the finest natural harbor on Africa's east coast south of Mombasa. Portuguese traders established a factory here in 1544, but the settlement that became Lourenço Marques grew slowly until the 1890s gold rush transformed it into the gateway for South African mining traffic. The name changed to Maputo in 1976, a year after independence, adopting the name of the nearby river as FRELIMO erased colonial nomenclature.

The city's economic primacy is extreme even by African capital standards: with only 5.4% of Mozambique's population, Maputo generates 20.2% of national GDP. Trade and transport together account for nearly 60% of the capital's output, reflecting the port's role as chokepoint for Southern African commerce. The Maputo Development Corridor links the harbor to Johannesburg's industrial heartland via road, rail, and pipeline—a 500-kilometer lifeline that South African chrome, coal, and magnetite depend upon.

The Port of Maputo processed a record 31.2 million metric tons of cargo in 2023, with over half of South Africa's chrome ore routing through its deep-water berths. Rail volumes reached 3.019 million tonnes in 2024, up 7% from the prior year. In 2025, the European Union and France committed €145 million to double the final 25 km of the Ressano Garcia railway, targeting 19 million tonnes annual capacity.

But the 2024 post-election protests exposed concentrated risk: demonstrations halted coal truck entries and reduced port shipments by up to 80,000 metric tons weekly. The same geographic concentration that enables Maputo's prosperity makes it a pressure point when political stability fractures.

By 2026, Maputo's trajectory hinges on whether post-election stability can restore confidence—or whether investors begin routing cargo through alternative ports.