Shippers Council Moves To Tackle Delay Of Export Laden Containers At APM Terminals Apapa

By Roland Ekama

The Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) has reaffirmed commitment towards ensuring seamless exportation of Nigeria  cargoes overseas , thus spending less hours at APM Terminals Apapa for onward shipping .

The Port  Economic Regulator further assured shippers that delay of export containers at APM Terminals would soon become a thing of the past.

The Executive Secretary of the Council, Barr Pius Akutah who gave the assurance over the weekend, while responding to issues bothering on delay of export containers at APM Terminals Apapa,.pledged the Council’s continuous support for the promotion of export laden containers at the facilities stating that the purpose of the visit was to ensure a seamless process for export trade and close working relationship with the Concessionaire in furtherance to add value to the nation’s economy positively.

He noted that there is a need to get a holistic view of the problems associated with exports and address it because according to him, when export is promoted, it will help the economy.

He emphasized the need for stakeholders meeting where the issues will be addressed to create awareness to shippers that cannot just take a box to the terminal if it is not properly documented of being shipped.

Akutah stressed that “All we need to do is to have a stakeholders meeting that will deal with the issues and this is important because, that is our mandate at the Shippers Council to see that shippers are doing well.

“Some of them would have borrowed money but if they are not able to achieve the result, it will be harming the economy not just their contribution to the economy but that they have taken loans for their businesses which will end up being bad, ” he said.

Assuring the container terminal operator of efforts to stop the incessant dumping of export containers at the port terminal, the Executive Secretary,promised to meet with all relevant agencies involved in export operations to see how the process can be streamlined in order to avoid a situation where export boxes are found to be wanting in some areas and are abandoned Inside the port by the exporters.

“We will meet with the NPA and other relevant stakeholders involved in export to see how we can stop this abandoning of export boxes inside the port. In this period where government is looking at improving the nations export potential, all hands must be on deck to ensure the nation gets full value from her export drive,” the NSC Executive Secretary/CEO stated.

Earlier management of APMT Apapa lamented that 616 containers of export goods have spent about several weeks inside the port without being shipped out.

Terminal Manager , APM Terminals, Apapa, Mr. Steen Knudsen explained that the terminal derives value from export cargoes when they arrive and are shipped within the best possible time out of the terminal by shipping companies.

According to Mr. Steen Knudson, “When export cargoes arrive and are shipped out of the terminal by the shipping companies within the shortest period of time, that is when we derive value from export operations. Not a situation where export boxes arrive and just sit here inside the port for years.

“As we speak, we have 616 export laden containers that have spent between 31 days and 1000 days inside our terminal. This impacts our ability to receive more export containers because we have to do multiple re-handling of these export containers.

“There is a standard process which has been clearly defined by the relevant government agencies for export operations, but we still see that there is no strict compliance to this processes.

“The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has established Export Processing Terminals (EPT’s) to handle export goods, but we still see trucks carrying export cargoes heading straight to the port without going through these EPT’s. and that’s why many of them get into the port and get abandoned because they have not gone through the normal process before entering the port.

“These export containers might not end up leaving the port because they have spent close to three years inside the port. Most of their contents would have lost value due to the long standing.”

The APM Terminals, Apapa Terminal Manager explained that once a truck gets to the terminal gate, it is difficult to turn back due to the location of the container terminal.

“Once a truck bringing in an export container arrives at our gate, it is difficult to turn such container back due to our location. It is when the container gets into the port and the various government agencies run necessary checks that it is discovered to have not gone through the right processes. At this point, it is left inside the port.

But what we have been able to do now is to extend that checking area up to the NPA Gate so that any truck that is coming in with an export container without going through normal process can be turned back from that point.

“These are the efforts we are trying to put in place to try and reduce the numbers of abandoned export containers inside the port terminal.

“There is no laid-down auction process for export container by the Customs, and that’s why the abandoned containers have been inside the port for close to three years.