Service — Mining & project cargo
Toamasina · Ehoala · Mahajanga · RN2 corridor
Madagascar mining and project cargo — built around the corridor, not the manifest.
Madagascar is a meaningful mining jurisdiction — nickel, cobalt, ilmenite, graphite, chromite — and the inland logistics is where most project moves succeed or fail. Heavy-lift through Toamasina, single-road RN2 corridor to the interior, cyclone-season windows that limit when you can move what. We build the project plan around those constraints up front.
Commodities we handle
Madagascar's mining export profile.
Nickel & cobalt
Ambatovy (Moramanga region)
Madagascar's largest mining operation. Refined nickel and cobalt as battery-grade and metallurgical-grade product. China is the dominant destination corridor, with shipments routing Toamasina → Singapore/Colombo → Shanghai under the LDC zero-tariff scheme.
Ilmenite & zircon
QMM (Fort Dauphin)
Rio Tinto–operated mineral sands operation. Ehoala is the dedicated minerals port for the operation — bulk shipment direct without inland corridor exposure.
Graphite
Multiple operations
Flake graphite and processed graphite product from Vohibory, Ambatomitamba, and other deposits. Growing strategic value tied to battery-anode demand. China and increasingly North America destination corridors.
Chromite, mica, gold
Various
Smaller-volume mineral exports with specific handling and documentation profiles. Chromite ore exports to processing destinations, mica for industrial and cosmetics applications, gold under specific export licence regime.
Capabilities
Four things mining project moves need to get right.
Heavy-lift & out-of-gauge
Project cargo over standard container limits — mining mill components, processing-plant modules, generator sets, mobile equipment. Toamasina handles RoRo, breakbulk, and heavy-lift on dedicated rotations. Pre-shipment liaison with MICTSL and the port authority is part of every project move.
Customs regime selection
Admission Temporaire for equipment imported for time-bounded project execution. Bonded transit where the equipment stages through Madagascar to an onward destination. Final-duty clearance only where the equipment remains in-country permanently. Wrong regime = lost duty, longer dwell, paperwork rework.
RN2 inland corridor coordination
From Toamasina port to the inland mining and processing belts, RN2 is the single-road corridor. Convoy permitting, axle-load assessment, route survey, escort coordination, and cyclone-season window planning — done before the vessel arrives, not when the cargo is on the apron.
Outbound mineral export logistics
Bulk and containerised mineral export. Carrier capacity coordination for the destination corridor, certificate of origin and certificate of analysis documentation, LDC zero-tariff origin claim for China-destined cargo, and chain-of-custody from mine to vessel.
How we run a project move
Plan, survey, book, clear.
1
Project scoping
Cargo manifest review (dimensions, weight, hazard class), origin and destination, schedule constraint, customs regime selection, port and corridor capability mapping. The output is a project plan, not a quote.
2
Pre-shipment route survey
Where required — heavy-lift moves, abnormal-load convoys, inland corridor routings — a physical route survey precedes booking. RN2 has known constraint points; pretending otherwise on a paper plan costs more than the survey.
3
Carrier and port liaison
Vessel booking matched to the cargo profile, port-side handling slot, MICTSL coordination on lift capacity and apron staging, and customs pre-clearance preparation. For breakbulk and heavy-lift, this is several weeks of work ahead of vessel ETA.
4
Customs clearance & inland forwarding
ASYCUDA filing under the selected customs regime, DGD liaison, duty assessment where applicable, release coordination, and handover to the inland convoy. Same procedure as containerised clearance, with the added documentation profile that project cargo demands.
Operator FAQ
Madagascar mining & project cargo — questions we get.
- What are Madagascar's main mining export commodities?
- Nickel and cobalt (Ambatovy, near Moramanga), ilmenite and zircon (QMM, Fort Dauphin), graphite (multiple operations including those in the Vohibory and Ambatomitamba regions), chromite, mica, and gold. Each has distinct extraction footprint, processing profile, and outbound logistics requirement.
- Which port handles project cargo in Madagascar?
- Toamasina is the primary deep-water container and project-cargo port. Ehoala (near Fort Dauphin) is the dedicated minerals port serving the QMM ilmenite operation. Mahajanga and Toliara handle smaller-volume and specialised cargo. Choice of port depends on the project's site location, cargo characteristics (out-of-gauge, breakbulk, heavy-lift), and inland-corridor access.
- Can Toamasina handle out-of-gauge and heavy-lift cargo?
- Yes. Toamasina handles RoRo, breakbulk, and heavy-lift cargo in addition to containerised volume. Specific lift capacity, draft, and storage configuration depend on the project — pre-shipment liaison with the port and MICTSL is part of project-cargo planning.
- What is the RN2 corridor and why does it matter for mining moves?
- RN2 is the primary inland highway from Toamasina to Antananarivo and onward to the mining heartland. It is a single-road corridor, vulnerable to cyclone-season damage (November–April), and the binding constraint for inland moves of heavy equipment. Project planning must account for RN2 condition windows, axle-load limits, and convoy permitting.
- What customs regime applies to project cargo?
- Mining project equipment frequently uses the Admission Temporaire regime (temporary import without final duty payment, re-export within the regulated period) or the bonded transit regime where the equipment is staged for onward export. Each shipment is profile-matched to the optimal regime as part of pre-shipment planning.
- What are the main outbound logistics constraints for mining exports?
- Bulk minerals require dedicated handling capacity at the port. Reefer or specialised handling for processed concentrates. Carrier capacity on the relevant outbound corridor — China is the dominant destination for Madagascar nickel and graphite, with the LDC zero-tariff scheme now applying. Origin documentation and certificate of analysis travels with the cargo.
Mining or project move in Madagascar?
Share the manifest, origin, destination, and indicative schedule. We'll come back with a project plan — customs regime, port lift, RN2 corridor profile, and the things to fix before the vessel books.