There is anxiety among stakeholders at the Tin Can Island Port in Lagos following the decision of indigenous terminal operator; Ports and Cargo Handling Services, a subsidiary of SIFAX Group to introduced a ‘Royalty’ charge of N121, 565 per 40foot container and N62, 361 per 20foot container on all cargoes going out of its terminal to bonded terminals.
Ports and Cargo Handling Services operates terminal ‘C’ at Tin Can port. The new charge is however not applicable to containers going to all SIFAX bonded and off-dock terminals.
In a circular issued on 14th of May 2018 and obtained exclusively by Shipping Position Daily, Ports and Cargo Handling Services said it has observed that in recent times, a lot of containers are being transferred from its terminal to other bonded terminals without concrete agreement with the owners of these terminals and that this has affected its revenue target and reconciliation process.
According to the circular, the royalty charge excludes other normal clearing charges and it took effect from May 21st, 2018.
Reliable sources at the port however confirmed to our correspondent that the Ports and Cargo Terminal had introduced the new charge because it was having business disagreements with Clarion Bonded Terminals, a vehicle bonded terminal located at the Satellite Town area of Lagos.
Speaking with Shipping Position Daily at the weekend, Chief Executive Officer of Clarion Bonded Terminal, Mrs Bernadine Eloka claimed she has no business disagreement with Sifax Group. She however alleged that her bonded terminal was the target of the new charge.
She said “There is no business disagreement between us, it is just that they were complaining that they were losing income, they are no longer breaking even, they are operating at losses, and that when they investigated, it was discovered that the reason was because most of their containers now goes to off-dock. And there is no off-dock that takes much containers out on bond other than Clarion”
“This was so because we marketed all the customers, both the shippers, consignees and the agents, we told them to be making use of MSC Shipping and Ports and Cargo, and that we prefer to concentrate our transfers to one point than scattering our customers to different ports”
“We started this marketing since two years ago, even recently we went to the US, Canada, Germany canvassing that shippers should be using MSC shipping and Ports and Cargo, this resulted in increase in containers going to Ports and Cargo and when they now see much containers going to Clarion, they didn’t know that it was as a result of our marketing strategy, they felt it just came like that”
She added that, “N120, 000 royalty before you can take your container out of the port, it is not done, but in this country, everybody believes they can just wake up and implement any decision. Apparently they are targeting Clarion Bonded Terminal because at other bonded terminals they don’t really do much”
Meanwhile stakeholders have been reacting to the development. The Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) Tin Can Chapter through its Chairman, Prince Segun Oduntan told Shipping Position Daily that the association has written to Sifax Group on the development but there has been no response.
He condemned the charge outrightly, even as he confirmed that some of his members have been calling on the secretariat and asking questions.
However, when he was contacted by Shipping Position Daily to respond to the allegations, Corporate Affairs Manager of SIFAX Group, Mr. Muyiwa Akande said the company is compiling its position on the development and that this would be made public this week.
“We are compiling our position in-house, we would address the issue officially by next week and get back to you”, he said.
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