Bonded terminal operator, Clarion Bonded Terminals, a vehicle terminal in Lagos has charged it's importers to stop patronizing MSC Shipping Company over alleged introduction of arbitrary charges of N70,000.
In a chat with Shipping Position Daily in Lagos last week General Manager of Clarion Terminal, Francis Okocha said that his terminal has already started demarketing MSC shipping and telling importers not to bring in their vehicles through the shipping company.
He lamented that recently, MSC on their own allegedly introduced a policy that states that, for every container going to offdock terminals, they would have to pay N70,000 and rate the container two weeks ahead.
"Even if they know you are carrying your cargo tomorrow, they would still rate two weeks ahead, they said they are doing this because people no longer return their containers on time and they said the money is refundable, this is why people have been paying"
"They collect more than N70,000 if you pick a cargo from the port today, you must pay two weeks in advance, when you return the container, they would now calculate it along your container deposit, this is illegal because this is why we have the container deposit in the first place"
"We are going to start de-marketing them, importers should boycott msc, by the time their traffic begins to fall, they would begin to ask why.
As I speak with you now, I have made sure that the news is all over Europe, in Canada and America that they should boycott MSC because they are introducing funny charges" he said
He argued that with the bad roads around the port, terminal operators should not expect importers to take container and bring it back the next day.
According to him, bonded terminal owners are yet to start preparing for refunds of the alleged collections, adding that they are not sure if MSC would be refunding.
In the main time, he said that importers doing business with Clarion bonded terminal have been advised to use other shipping companies like Maersk Line, COSCO shipping and MESSINA shipping.
"There are still other shipping companies around, we have asked them to use Maersk Line, COSCO, and Messina is also coming back. I have told them to start using MESSINA to bring in about ten of our containers coming in now"
"In their place, they don't just wake up and impose fines, but when they come to Nigeria here, they believe they can whatever they like. Up till now, surprisingly we have not heard Shippers Council reactions"
Okocha said that the ban on importation of vehicles through land borders has helped a lot and that the policy has boosted activities at the ports, causing vehicle importation to increase.
"The customs migration from ASYCUDA to NICIIS 2 is another big advantage because now it is very difficult to cut corners"
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