The United States has identified the award of the concession for the Congolese segment of the Lobito corridor to Mota-Engil as a priority project under its strategic partnership with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), signed on Dec. 4, 2025.

Speaking at the Powering Africa Summit in Washington on March 19, 2026, Nick Checker, a senior official at the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs, cited the award as one of three projects he described as “fundamental to the successful implementation of this partnership.”

The other two projects cited by Washington are the acquisition of Chemaf assets by a Virtus-led consortium, approved by the Congolese Ministry of Mines on March 13, 2026, and a proposed transaction between Orion Critical Mineral Consortium and Glencore involving mining assets in the DRC, still at the memorandum-of-understanding stage.

The agreement designates the Sakania-Lobito corridor as a strategic infrastructure project and a cornerstone of Congo’s industrial and commercial strategy. It sets specific transit targets: over the next five years, 50% of copper, 30% of cobalt and 90% of zinc produced or exported by state-owned companies must pass through the corridor.

Washington has openly stated its geoeconomic objectives. In the same address, Checker said the U.S. goal is to ensure African critical minerals “start flowing westward toward the United States,” citing the Lobito corridor as a model. He added that the projects would strengthen U.S. supply chains and signal to private investors that the DRC is open for business. “With the sustained commitment and leadership of President Tshisekedi, we are optimistic about the rapid completion of these initial projects,” he said.

Tender process

U.S. support for Mota-Engil is not new. On Dec. 5, 2025, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) announced a letter of intent with the Portuguese group to support the rehabilitation, operation and transfer of the Dilolo-Sakania line in the DRC. According to the DFC, that support could reach $1 billion, subject to full project review.

Congolese authorities have maintained that the process remains open. At the first corridor coordination meeting, held in Luanda in February 2026, Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister Jean-Pierre Bemba said the DRC was preparing an international tender for the rehabilitation of the Tenke-Kolwezi-Dilolo section, with a public-private partnership as the preferred model and construction expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2026.

While the project is still being structured, state-owned SNCC remains active on the section, where emergency works are already underway. The work targets about 80 km of critical track sections to ensure traffic continuity. Authorities say $100 million has already been invested to rehabilitate 60–70 km of track.

Official projections indicate that the corridor will make the port of Lobito more competitive than Durban in South Africa, Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, Beira in Mozambique and Walvis Bay in Namibia for exports from southern DRC. Freight from mining hubs such as Tenke and Kolwezi would take between five and eight days to reach Lobito, compared with roughly 25 days to Durban. The transport minister said the reduction in transit times would cut logistics costs by up to 30%. In the first year of operation, exports of 1 million tonnes and imports of 500,000 tonnes are projected.

On the Angolan segment, Mota-Engil, Trafigura and Vecturis already operate via the Lobito Atlantic Railway (LAR) consortium, which holds a 30-year concession for the Lobito-Luau line. That section has been operational since 2023.

Ronsard Luabeya