Samsung Heavy Industries Nigeria (SHIN) has partnered with COSCO Shipping Lines (Nigeria) Company Limited to begin empty container handling and storage at the SHI-MCI yard.
COSCO, according to information from Ships & Ports, has requested SHIN to undertake handling and storage of empty containers at SHI-MCI yard for its regular ships, up to three voyages per month.
The estimated contract duration, subject to final agreement, would be one year and may be extended for another six months term subject to the written mutual agreement of both parties.
With the Apapa gridlock, which has crippled businesses in the past, SHI-MCI will provide a suitable and alternative location for storage of empty containers reachable by barge/vessel.
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Under the arrangement between SHIN and COSCO, every empty container, which will be arriving the SHI-MCI yard shall be inspected, tagged and sealed prior to evacuation and own its unique registration number that will be handy to identify, relocate and segregate with other containers.
It is estimated that COSCO owned more than 10,000 Twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of empty container at several loading bay of port terminals, that is, APM Terminals, Five Stars, Tin-Can Island Container Terminal (TICT) and about 2,000 TEUs of export/import weekly in regular basis.
These should be ready to be transferred to SHI-MCI FZE yard, as SHI-MCI FZE has received National Operating License from Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA).
These operations include Berthing of barges at the SHI-MCI FZE Quay wall for the offloading of empty containers; storage of empty containers at SHI-MCI FZE Laydown area; and the berthing of feeder vessel at the quay to backload the empty containers unto the vessels for shipping.
The empty containers will be evacuated to be exported to Cotonou Port (Benin), Lome Port (Togo), Tema Port (Ghana) and Malabo (Cameroon).
COSCO Shipping Lines is a fully owned subsidiary of COSCO Shipping Holdings Company Limited mainly engaged in domestic and international maritime container transport services and related businesses, as the group’s core business sector.
By the end of December 2020, COSCO Shipping Holdings Company Limited owned and operated 423 container vessels with a total capacity of 2.3 million, ranking the third position in the world in terms of shipping capacity. COSCO Shipping Lines also operates 399 international and domestic shipping routes.
