an.16--ZAMBIAN and Tanzanian railway workers have gone on strike against the Tazara Railway over non-payment of wages from a loss-making company owned 50:50 by the governments of the two countries, Reuters reports.

 

"The employees in both Tanzania and Zambia communicated to the authority that they would no longer wait for the promised solutions and opted to down tools," said a Tazara Railway spokesman.

 

Tazara has been operating at a loss and failed to meet operational costs, including expenses for locomotive spares, rolling stock, fuel and salaries, he said. 

 

The railway links Dar es Salaam and Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia's Central Province. Built in the 1970s, the single-track US$500 million line is 1,860 kilometres (1,160 miles) long and was financed by China and was its biggest foreign-aid project for many years.

 

Built to eliminate Zambia's economic dependence on hated Rhodesia and South Africa, it was known as the "Uhuru [freedom] Railway" and became the symbol of pan-African socialism and defiance against white rule.

 

Forty years later, the Tazara line brings copper from Africa's two largest producers, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia, to the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam. But much of the copper from both countries is also moved by road.

 

The railway moved 5,400 tonnes of copper in the last six months, well below a target of 41,000 tonnes. At its peak - 2004 and 2008 - it moved 120,000 tonnes every six months.

 

Copper imports by China increased to a record last year as a slump in prices in the second half of the year spurred demand, reported Bloomberg.

 

Inbound shipments to China rose 7.4 per cent to 4.83 million tonnes, according the General Administration of Customs. Imports in December were at 420,000 tonnes, unchanged from November.

 

London Metal Exchange copper fell 1.5 per cent after dropping below $6,000 a tonne for the first time in five years this week.