Maputo, June 12, 2026 (Lusa) - Mozal, Africa’s largest smelter, which has been closed since 15 March, said it generated 1.527 billion meticais (€20.5 million) in tax revenue in 2025, accounting for almost 0.5% of total public revenue, according to official figures.
According to data from the General State Account (CGE), the Mozambican state collected almost 365 billion meticais (€4.911 billion) in current and capital revenue last year.
Consequently, Mozal’s payment of 626.4 million meticais (€8.4 million) in Personal Income Tax (IRPS) and 900.5 million meticais (€12.1 million) in withholding tax accounted for nearly 0.5% of the state’s revenue last year.
In the document, which parliament will soon debate, the government reports that ten megaprojects, including the Mozal smelter in Maputo, contributed 33,875 million meticais (€456 million) in revenue to the state.
The state holds a 3.85% stake in Mozal’s share capital, and the CGE notes that the smelter recorded losses of 33.2 million meticais in 2025.
The company deferred VAT and corporate income tax (company profits) payments and, at the end of the year, employed 1,088 direct employees, in addition to 35 subcontracted companies.
Around 3,000 workers from companies supplying Mozal, Mozambique’s largest industry, which has been closed since March, are still awaiting compensation, a trade union source told Lusa on 19 May.
“It must be emphasised here that, amongst these 20 companies [suppliers to Mozal], some have already complied and paid.
Therefore, we are talking here of around 3,000 workers who are still affected,” Américo Macamo, general secretary of the National Union of Workers in the Metallurgical, Metalworking and Energy Industries (Sintime), told Lusa.
The matter concerns the temporary suspension of operations at Mozal on 15 March, located on the outskirts of Maputo and one of the largest smelters in Africa, with over 1,000 direct employees and 4,000 indirect ones, following a dispute over energy tariffs.
The plant has entered a maintenance and conservation phase, as South32’s chief executive, Graham Kerr, stated at the time, predicting that, without production, the company will spend $60 million (€52.4 million), including on “contract terminations”, with maintenance alone costing $5 million (€4.4 million) annually.
The general secretary of Sintime stated that, of the 20 companies that provided services to Mozal and have also closed down or scaled back their operations, eight have already paid their workers’ entitlements in full, while constructive efforts continue regarding the remaining companies.
“Some companies have paid out, everything is settled; however, there are others that are working to settle payments as they address various difficulties, and they too were taken by surprise by this sudden interruption of the project’s activities,” explained Américo Macamo, describing the situation faced by these companies as “complicated”.
According to Sintime, Mozal has paid all its employees, in line with the guarantee given before the maintenance shutdown, and it is now solely up to the companies to comply “fully” with Mozambican legislation, with the union explaining that it understands both the current situation of the companies in arrears and the workers’ demands.
South32 had previously described the proposed energy tariff for Mozal as “totally unsustainable”, thereby justifying its closure, whilst not ruling out resuming operations at Mozambique’s largest industry should conditions change.
Mozal produced 248,000 tonnes of aluminium in the nine months leading up to its closure in March, 6% less than in the same period of 2025, according to official data consulted by Lusa in the first week of May.
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