Container traffic at Nigerian ports hits 1.56m TEUs in 2023

A total of 1,566,162 million Twenty Equivalent Units of containers were brought into the Nigerian seaports in 2023, representing a 6.8 percent decline in volume compared to the 1.68 million recorded in 2022.

According to the port performance report presented at the quarterly meeting of the Nigerian Port Consultative Council held in Lagos recently, vessel calls into Nigerian ports also witnessed a decline of 4.5 percent to 3,778 in the period under review compared to 3,957 vessels that visited Nigerian ports in 2022.#

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Cargo throughput (excluding crude oil) also recorded 70.47 million metric tons in 2023, which represents a decline of 6.4 percent against 75.27 million metric tons in 2022.

The volume of cargo that was brought into the nation’s ports stood at 122.87 million metric tons in 2023, representing a slight increase compared to 120.37 million metric tons recorded in 2022, showing an increase of 2.1 percent, the report said.

Also, import container traffic accounted for 55.85 percent with 874,683 TEUs, while export container traffic stood at 684,586 TEUs representing 43.71 percent of total container traffic.

“A breakdown of export container traffic revealed that empty containers accounted for about 80 percent of total export container traffic. The average turnaround time of vessels was 4.0 days, compared with 5.1 days I. 2022. It is however worth noting that the significant improvement in the average turnaround time vessel was brought about by the impact of Lekki Deep Seaport which achieved a turnaround of only one day.

“The increase in Gross Registered Tonnage (GRT) despite a drop in the number of vessel calls revealed berthing of bigger vessels, especially at Lekki Port where the average GRT of the vessel is 45,185 compared to Apapa with 30, 565 GRT. This further gives credence to the importance of a deep sea to the Nigerian Maritime or port development.