Off-Dock Facilities To The Rescue
With about 60 vessels loaded with assorted products berthing at the terminals in Lagos ports last week and an almost equal number expected this week, the nation’s busiest seaports are getting overwhelmed by another round of congestion.
Already, terminal operators have resorted to mass transfer of containers to bonded terminals in a frantic move to create space for incoming vessels to discharge.
Port users, especially importers and licensed customs agents have complained of acute block stacking of containers at the terminals, even as they blamed the Nigeria Customs Service for the development.
Shipping position Weekly reporters confirmed the congestion and the block stacking at the terminals last week. Investigations at some of the terminals revealed a serious pile up of containers leading to as much as five steps of block stacks in some terminals, with the least being three steps.
However, visits to such terminals also revealed that the pile up was not as a result of non availability of cargo handling equipment on the part of the terminal operators. In fact, an official of one of the companies told Shipping Position Weekly that there has been a reduction in the number of containers that are been delivered daily.
Read Also: “Cabotage Implementation Unfair To Seafarers” – Ramalan, Ex-NIMASA Chairman
The official (names with held) told our correspondent that “It is not that we lack equipment; I agree that we had a little problem recently when we received more vessels than we anticipated and we were overwhelmed. But now it is a different matter, we have equipment, but clearing agents are not coming to take delivery”.
Our investigations revealed that it is the presence of the customs task force from Abuja that is causing the pile up as importers whose consignments are questionable have refused to process their documents.
Shipping Position Weekly had alerted three weeks ago that congestion was imminent and that importers who probably had questionable consignments have been abandoning their cargoes in the ports on account of the presence of the 48- hour cargo clearance officers form the customs headquarters in Abuja.
This fear was also highlighted recently at a meeting between the customs Comptroller General, Alhaji Hamman Bello Ahmed and the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria led by its director general, Dr Jide Mike.
Kindly like us on Facebook
Discussion about this post