Congestion hits Lagos ports again, 28 ships await berth

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

30 May 2009

Congestion has gradually returned to Lagos ports again, two months after the Federal Government evacuated hundreds of overtime containers to Ikorodu Lighter Terminal, in Lagos and Onne Port, in Port Harcourt. BusinessDay investigations reveal that apart from 14 oil tanker vessels waiting to discharge at various jetties in Lagos, 28 ships are being delayed from bringing in their consignments due to the congestion at the ports.
Analysis of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Shipping Position indicates that out of the 28 vessels waiting at the country’s territorial waters, 14 are to discharge at the ENL Consortium Limited, seven at Tin Can Island Container Terminal (TICT) and two at KCB terminal.
Moreover, two vessels are to discharge at the Apapa Bulk Terminal Limited (ABTL), two at 5-Star Logistics and one ship is to bring in its cargo at the Josepdam Terminal.
Presently, no ship is waiting to do business at the APM Terminal, Greenview Development Nigeria Limited and Ports and Cargo Handling Company.
Also, 80 ships with vehicles, bulk cement, bulk sugar, containers, general cargo, bulk wheat and fishes, are being expected to bring in their commodities to the ports in the next three weeks.
Other consignments expected at the ports are bulk salt, steel products, diesel, petrol, kerosene, low pour fuel oil and base oil, even as 22 vessels are already at anchorage, discharging their goods.
Speaking with BusinessDay, in Lagos, during the week, the general manager of ENL Consortium Limited, Mark Walsh, attributed the congestion on the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) 100 percent cargo examination, which he said was delaying quick movement of goods out of the terminal.
He advised that customs should rather conduct random sampling during cargo examination, stressing that it takes longer period to off-load and re-load general cargoes within the terminal.
“We handle bulk cargoes which take a lot of time to discharge from the ship and bringing them down before transferring the items to the vehicles is not ideal now that Nigeria is talking about 48-hour cargo clearance,” Walsh stated.
On his part, the out-going managing director of Maersk Line Nigeria, Tom Knudsen, observed that transferring containers to Ikorodu and Onne would not solve the problem of congestion at the ports, stressing that reducing cargo dwell time is one of the solutions to the on-going crisis.
“There is no improvement on cargo dwell time. Before, it was 32 days and now, it has increased to 35 days. If this continues, Nigeria will be back to square one in the last quarter of the year,” Knusden explained.
He further pointed out that the transfer of containers could only provide succour to the shipping community only when the Federal Government makes it a routine exercise.

Source: Business Day Online