From Anthony Nwachukwu, Lagos
Operators of the APM Terminal Apapa have cried out to regulatory authorities as no fewer than 616 export containers have been abandoned inside the terminal for about 1000 days, causing both space constraint and economic losses.
Disclosing the company’s plight to the Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Mr. Pius Akutah, the Terminal Manager, Mr.
Steen Knudsen, said the terminal derives value from export cargoes they are shipped out within the best possible time.
However, “as we speak, we have 616 export-laden containers that have spent between 31 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,” he stated.
To end the ugly trend, Akutah said he would meet with the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) “and other relevant stakeholders to see how we can stop this abandoning of export boxes inside the port. In this period when the government is looking at improving the nation’s export potential, all hands must be on deck.
”Knudson had explained that the company derives value from export operations only “when export cargoes arrive and are shipped out of the terminal by the shipping companies within the shortest period, not where export boxes arrive and just sit here inside the port for years.
”Lamenting the lack of strict compliance with the process, Knudsen stated that the NPA has established Export Processing Terminals (EPTs) to handle export goods.
However, “we still see trucks carrying export cargoes heading straight to the port without going through these EPTs. 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.
”He further explained that export cargoes that by-passed the EPTs were not turned back because “once a truck bringing in an export container arrives at our gate, it is difficult to turn such a 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.
“What we have been able to do now is to extend that checking area up to the NPA Gate so that any truck coming in with an export container without going through the normal process can be turned back from that point.
”He regretted that the absence of a laid-down auction process for export containers by the Nigeria Customs Service has led to some abandoned containers lying in the port for about three years.
Daily Asset
