Bateau de transport sur lac (Lake Transport Boat: BATRALAC), is a private company that operates cargo boats on
Lake Tanganyika
Lake Tanganyika ( ; ) is an African Great Lakes, African Great Lake. It is the world's List of lakes by volume, second-largest freshwater lake by volume and the List of lakes by depth, second deepest, in both cases after Lake Baikal in Siberia. ...
.
It is based in the
Port of Bujumbura
The Port of Bujumbura is a port on Lake Tanganyika serving Bujumbura, the largest city in Burundi. It is the largest port on the lake and handles about 80% of Burundi's imports and exports. Constructed in 1959 and expanded in the early 1990s, the ...
in Burundi.
History
Batralac has Greek ownership.
It acquired the 1,110 ton Tora in 1988, the 500 ton Rwegura in 1984 and the 1,500 ton Teza in 2002.
As of 1990 BATRALAC, SOTRALAC and Tanganyika Transport were competitors of
ARNOLAC, the largest merchant shipping company in Burundi.
During the
Burundian Civil War
The Burundian Civil War was a civil war in Burundi lasting from 1993 to 2005. The civil war was the result of longstanding ethnic divisions between the Hutu and the Tutsi ethnic groups. The conflict began following the first multi-party electi ...
, on 25 May 1997
FDD rebels led by former interior minister
Léonard Nyangoma
Léonard Nyangoma (born 31 December 1952) is a Burundian politician and former rebel leader.
Early life
Léonard Nyangoma was born on 31 December 1952 in Rutundwe, Bururi Province, Burundi. He graduated from the University of Burundi in 1979 wit ...
captured Batralac's Rwegera cargo ship and took it south to
Moba
Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) is a subgenre of strategy video games in which two teams of players compete on a structured battlefield, each controlling a single character with distinctive abilities that grow stronger as the match progr ...
in Zaire, which was still in the hands of the
Forces Armées Zaïroises
In physics, a force is an influence that can cause an object to change its velocity unless counterbalanced by other forces. In mechanics, force makes ideas like 'pushing' or 'pulling' mathematically precise. Because the magnitude and direction ...
.
In 2005 the three Batralac ships visited
Mpulungu
Mpulungu is a town in the Northern Province of Zambia, at the southern tip of Lake Tanganyika.Camerapix: "Spectrum Guide to Zambia." Camerapix International Publishing, Nairobi, 1996.
From Mpulungu, boats reach DR Congo, Tanzania and Burundi. Th ...
in Zambia, at the south end of the lake, once a month.
They travelled together.
Products transported from Zambia were cement, reinforcing bars, sugar and maize.
The ships carried food and cement trom the port of Kigoma in Tanzania.
There was a political crisis in 2015 when Burundian president
Pierre Nkurunziza
Pierre Nkurunziza (18 December 1964 – 8 June 2020) was a Burundian politician who served as the ninth president of Burundi for almost 15 years from August 2005 until his death in June 2020.
A member of the Hutu, Hutu ethnic group, Nkurunziza ...
decided to run for a third term.
The combined volumes carried by ARNOLAC and BATRALAC fell to 2,000 tonnes per month.
In 2024, shipping on Lake Tanganyika was dominated by companies based in Burundi, including
ARNOLAC, BATRALAC and RAD Marine.
MV Teza
MV Teza went into service in August 2002.
It is a full container ship that can load 40 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) shipping containers, 26 in the hold and 14 on deck.
As of 2012 it had not loaded containers for several years.
It can also carry 1500 tonnes of bulk cargo.
It has a crew of 16.
It was the largest vessel in service in the Port of Bujumbura in 2012.
MV Teza was designed by Chris Simopoulos & Associates of Greece, and built by Batralac in a project managed by Basil Demeris.
The ship is .
The steel hull is thick and has a moulded depth of
It carries up to of fuel and is powered by two
Cummins
Cummins Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and distributes engines, electric vehicle components, and power generation products. Cummins also services engines and related equipmen ...
KT19 marine diesels, each rated 425 HP at 1800 RPM, which drive diameter propellers.
Cruising speed is 11 knots.
Two 37kW Moëës CUST370-4M generators powered by Cummins 4B engines supply electricity.
Fleet
As of 2012 the BATRALAC fleet was:
State: V.G = Very Good / G = Good / G.E = Good Enough
See also
*
List of companies of Burundi
*
Economy of Burundi
References
Sources
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{{refend
Companies of Burundi
1988 establishments in Burundi