Following the rush and high volume of business activities that come with Christmas, analysts are projecting that the cost of moving import and export cargos in and out of the ports in Apapa and Tin-Can Island would go up before the end of the year.
Expectations are also high that haulage costs will go up on account of the congestion in and around Apapa caused by collapsed roads infrastructure in the port city. Apapa and its dilapidated roads and bridges have become permanent parking lots for trucks heading to the ports and tank farms for imported cargos and petroleum products.
Usually there is a surge in business activities within the ports during this time of the year due to increased demand for fast moving consumer goods including clothing materials and wares, finished and semi-finished food stuff, containerised items, industrial chemicals and used vehicles needed for parties, weddings and other celebrations.
There is also an uncommon rush in the ports as many companies and individuals strive to bring their businesses for the year to a close.
Statistics from the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) shows that about 373,955 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containerised cargos have so far been handled in the nation’s seaport between January to September this year.
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Within that period, about 35,909,125 million metric tonnes of dry and liquid bulk cargos, general and containerized cargo, were discharged at the seaports.
The NPA shipping position also shows that the number of vessels bringing in different types of cargo into the Lagos Port Complex alone has increased from a little above 20 to a minimum of 35 vessels on monthly basis in addition to about 15 motor tankers waiting to discharge petroleum products in the various oil jetties in Lagos. This number is different from close to 40 vessels that berth at the Tin-Can Island port on monthly basis.
However at the moment, Apapa is in deep trouble due to persistent traffic gridlock that is impacting negatively on the entire metropolis as container-carrying trucks, tankers and other articulated vehicles find it difficult to gain access into the ports to take delivery of consignments for importers of these cargos.
The negative impact of this situation is not on maritime business alone. Most offices and industries in Apapa are today operating below installed capacity with declining productivity.
Because of the gridlock, office and company workers report for work very late and become weak and tired after spending quality man-hour in traffic. It takes over four hours to go to Apapa and a corresponding length of time to come out of the port city.
“Many offices have dropped their operating hours from 9hours to 7hours. Instead of resuming at 8am and closing by 5pm, offices now open by 9am and close by 4pm. This is to allow sufficient time for their staff to come in and leave Apapa before they are trapped completely in the gridlock”, Emma Ameke, a port operator, told BusinessDay.
Continuing, he said, “There are also instances where companies allow their workers to take one-day off a week, as a way of ensuring that they have sufficient health fitness to continue to do their duties”.
The implication of this, he explained, is that “it now takes such companies longer time to produce fewer products which, in the long run, makes such companies not competitive in the market”.
Presently, the Apapa gridlock has assumed an alarming proportion with long delays running into weeks and months for trucks to access and exit the ports, which have resulted to additional cost for transport owners.
To defray such losses, truck owners recently increased the cost of moving cargo from Lagos ports to warehouses within Lagos, to the north, south-east and south-west. For instance, transporting 20-foot containers from Tin-Can and Apapa ports to any warehouse in Lagos that used to cost between N40-000 and N120,000 now costs N400,000.00, while 40-foot containers that used to cost between N50,000 and N250,000 now costs N700,000.
Also, moving 20 and 40-foot containers from Lagos to the north that used to cost between N500,000 and N600,000, now costs between N900,000, N1 million and N1.3 million. Taking consignments to the south-east which used to cost N250,000 now costs between N550,000 and 750, 000.
Lucky Amiwero, a maritime analyst, who blamed the rising cost of transporting cargo on port inefficiency and the present mismanagement of backlog of cargo at the ports resulting to the gridlock, said that the haulage cost from Apapa/Tin-Can Island ports, in most cases, has become higher than the import duty paid on the containers.
Amiwero said that the cost of haulage, which has associated cost on the total cost of doing business at the port, will keep going up if the government and other agencies involved in managing the ports, fails to work towards ameliorating the traffic situation in Apapa.
“The increase in transport cost started two years ago following the difficulty of trucks and persons in accessing the ports. This difficulty constitutes serious delays running into weeks and months, leading to the astronomical increase in transport cost, which also encourages diversion of cargo to neighboring West African ports,” he explained.
Tony Anakebe, managing director of Gold-Link Investment Limited affirmed that the cost of haulage at Apapa port would definitely increase as the yuletide season approaches, noting that the gridlock has worsened due to increase in the volume of activities at the ports.
“The last quarter of every year usually marks the peak of import activities at the ports. Now that the 2018 importation peak season is here, the number of trucks coming to the ports is expected to go up, thereby adding to the congestion the port users are contending with in Apapa,” Anakebe said.
CHUKA UROKO & AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE
