Terminal Manager of APM Terminals, Steen Knudsen, welcomes Executive Secretary/CEO of NSC, Pius Akutah
The Executive Secretary/CEO, Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Pius Akutah, has decried the slow loading of over 4827 export containers onboard vessels at Apapa Port by APM Terminals at a time the federal government is looking at diversifying the economy.
The NSC boss, Pius Akutah, decried the development when he visited APM Terminals Apapa in Lagos towards finding solution to the problem.
Akutah explained that the time such cargoes spend at the port affects both the exporter in particular and the nation’s economy in general and warned that such wastage would not be tolerated.
APM Terminals, however, absolved itself of any complicity in the loading delay but rather blamed the Nigeria Customs Service for not sending the clearance for loading of the export boxes timely.
Kayode Daniel, the Government Relations Manager of APM Terminals, told the Executive Secretary/CEO of NSC while briefing him on various efforts by APM Terminals in getting the boxes onto vessels.
Daniel said that some of the containers that were allowed did not get clearance from Customs to be loaded onboard vessels for export.
He assured the Nigeria Shippers Council that Maersk Shipping Line will evacuate 1,900 of the 4817 trapped containers from the Lagos ports by Wednesday, May 8, 2024.
“Despite following all the laid down processes, we still end with situation where we have containers staying in the port longer than expected,” said Daniel.
Also speaking, the Deputy Director, Consumers Services, NSC, Celestine Akujobi, wondered why Maersk Shipping Lines would be waiting for the APM Terminal’s intervention before agreeing to come and pick up the empty cargoes, stressing whether the delay was a deliberate action on the part on the shipping lines.
“You just told us now that Maersk Shipping will be shipping about 2,000 of these containers in the next couple of days, it means that the problem is not with the shippers but the shipping lines because once they move 1,900 containers out of that number what is left will be insignificant,” said Akujobi.
In response, the General Manager, Legal of APM Terminals, Chinenye Deinde, said it will be wrong to pass the blame on the shipping lines since they were not present, noting that it is right to hear from the shipping lines where the delay is coming to pick up export boxes from the terminal.
While speaking, the Terminal Manager of APM Terminals, Steen Knudsen, said all stakeholders including Customs should be blamed for the hiccups in the loading.
“Everyone is involved in the process- government agencies, shipping lines, shippers, agents must join forces together to find an improvement process for the export cargoes,” said Knudsen.
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