Businesses located in commercial cities in the North and eastern parts of Nigeria are now paying more to move their containers from the seaports in Lagos.
Importers now pay between N1.8 million and N2.3 million to move a 40-foot container from Apapa or Tin-Can Island Port to major markets in Kano, Kaduna, and Abuja in the North and Onitsha as well as Nnewi in Anambra State.
This represents an increase of between N600,000 and N1.1 million when compared to about N1.2 million previously paid by importers to move the same cargo during the same period last year.
Importers of 20-foot containers who used to pay between N500,000 and N600,000 now pay about N900,000 and N1 million as transportation costs to move their containerised imports from Lagos to Kano, Kaduna, and Abuja in the North and Onitsha and Nnewi in Anambra.
BusinessDay findings show that the high cost of interstate haulage can be attributed to the persistent energy crisis, which started in 2022 due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. This resulted in the high cost of Automated Gas Oil, popularly known as diesel, used to power heavy-duty vehicles such as container-carrying trucks.
It was discovered that the cost of diesel moved up five times in the last six years from less than N200 per litre in 2015 to N800-N850 per litre currently.
According to industry analysts, this development is mounting serious pressure on the bottom line of the transporters, resulting in the high cost of transporting containers, especially for long-distance journeys.
“A few days ago, my company cleared and loaded a 40-foot container from Apapa to Kano. And the transporter charged us as much as N2.3 million as haulage cost,” said Tony Anakebe, managing director of Gold-Link Investment Ltd, a Lagos-based clearing and forwarding firm.
According to him, the transporters complained of the high cost of diesel used to deliver the container to the importers’ warehouses in the North or the East.
Read also: Container imports into Nigerian ports grows 13.10% in 5 years
“Transporters also claimed that they spend a substantial amount of money buying diesel to power the truck. The person that moved my container from Lagos to Kano claimed he had to put in between N500,000 and N900,000 on diesel alone,” he said.
The increasing cost of diesel has negatively affected business and made it difficult for truckers to grow, Remi Ogungbemi, chairman of the Association of Maritime Truck Owners, said.
“It is not only the cost of diesel that has increased, but even the cost of running transportation business within the port environment has also increased due to the impact of extortion on haulage business,” he said.
He said high inflation, which stands at about 21 percent, is also affecting the trucking business as the costs of spare parts have continued to go up, making it near impossible for operators and owners to maintain the truck.
Bola Adewale, a truck driver, told our correspondent that the rising cost of diesel has increased the cost of running haulage business in Nigeria.
Adewale said the development is eating into the bottom line of port haulage operators, forcing many to quit due to the inability to sustain the business.
Industry analysts, however, believed that the increasing cost of evacuating containers from the seaport to the importers’ warehouses, particularly those in the hinterland, has emphasised the need to overhaul the nation’s rail system to take its quota in the movement of goods.
To them, container haulage by rail is far cheaper when compared to the costs of moving containers via the road, which presently handles about 90 percent of all import and export goods in Nigeria.
Confirming this, Ahmed Rabiu, managing director of Dala Inland Dry Port in Kano, said that evacuation of containers by rail will bring down the cost of transporting containers from Lagos to Kano by road from over N1.2 million to not more than N200,000 per box.
According to him, rail is not only cost-effective but also has the tendency to reduce the loss of containers and goods in transit from Lagos to Kano.
