Nigerians living and doing business in cities with viable seaports are currently experiencing persistent traffic congestion, delayed movement and loss of man-hour without any hope in sight as empty containers have laid siege to the roads.
This arises from the fact that there are more containerised cargoes coming through the nation’s seaports than empty containers shipped out of the country.
“Empty container management is one of the biggest problems in Nigerian ports today. This is escalating because terminal owners are now tactically refusing to receive empty containers on behalf of shipping companies. That is why containers are littered on the roads,” said Tony Anakebe, managing director of Gold-Link Investment Ltd, in an interview with BusinessDay.
Importers in Nigeria take delivery of over 800,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containerised cargoes annually, but most of the empty containers end up being dumped in the country, leading to needless congestion along the port roads.
A total of 808,516 TEUS of containerised goods were received at the ports in 2018 while 365,754 TEUs were shipped out, according to the Container Traffic Statistics at Nigerian Ports released by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).
In 2017, about 667,826 TEUs of containerised goods were brought into the ports while 207,539TEUs of empties were exported.
The figures for 2016 showed 654,166 TEUs were imported while 309,546 TEUs of empties were exported. In 2015, 771,130 TEUs were imported while 417,627 TEUs empties were shipped out, while in 2014, a total of 935,309 TEUs of laden containers were imported while 522,942 TEUs of empties were shipped out.
BusinessDay findings show that despite the continued drop in annual volume of importation into Nigeria, the number of empty containers occupying stacking spaces on port terminals, private bonded terminals, off-dock facilities and holding-bays has continued to increase.
Aside these designated warehouses, unquantifiable number of empty containers litter the roads and streets located in cities like Lagos, Port Harcourt and Onne that have functional seaports.
A recent visit to Onne Port shows that it now takes an average of three to five hours to get to Onne from Port Harcourt or to return to Port Harcourt from Onne due to indiscriminate parking of several bulk cargo and empty container-carrying trucks on the East-West Road linking the two cities.
In Lagos, virtually all the roads, streets, bridges and even under the bridges, especially those that have connection with Apapa metropolis which houses Apapa and Tin-Can Island seaports, have been turned into parks for container-carrying trucks.
The most affected roads include Apapa-Oshodi Expressway (Cele to Mile 2 axis), Awodi Ora and Wilmer roads in Ajegunle, Kirikiri, Lagos-Badagry Expressway, Orile Iganmu, Second Rainbow down to Apple Junction, Ago Palace Way, Ikorodu road, Ijora, Eko Bridge, among others.
Consequently, residents in areas like Festac, Iyana-Oba, Satellite Town, Ajegunle, Apapa, Surulere and many other suburban areas in Lagos are losing long man-hour to and fro their offices, market places, among others.
Anekebe said terminal operators are rejecting empty containers due to lack of space, especially for containers that do not belong to their parent shipping companies, and prioritising empties belonging to their shipping companies.
“Some shipping companies find it convenient abandoning their empties in Nigerian ports. For instance, containers belonging to shipping liners like Hapg-Lloyd are being rejected by most terminal operators due to the space they occupy in terminals because it takes time for their ships to return to Nigeria and retrieve their empties,” he said.
He further said that truckers who evacuate laden containers belonging to Hapg-Lloyd charge as much as N800,000 per 40-foot container to warehouses in Lagos, when truckers charge between N300,000 to N400,000 for picking same size of container belonging to other shipping companies.
Adekunle Oyinloye, group managing director of SIFAX Group, owners of Ports and Cargo Handling Services Ltd (PCHSL), confirmed that empties are scattered everywhere and that shipment is not complete until the empty containers are returned to the countries of origin.
He blamed the bad state of access roads to Nigerian ports, which makes it difficult to gate out enough laden containers in order to receive empties that are littered on the roads.
“In terminals, we sell space and the space is limited. Therefore, if the laden containers that have been gated in have not been able to go out, the empties that are hanging around would be a bit difficult to come in. However, all our clients (shipping companies) are always willing to retrieve their containers,” he said.
John Jenkins, managing director, Ports and Cargo Handling Services Ltd, said about 250 empty containers are received at the terminal on daily basis and 3,000 to 4,000 TEUs shipped out every week.
“We can only gate in empty containers if we are able to gate out laden containers and we release about 250 to 300 TEUs of laden containers every day,” he said.
AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE
