$330m investment in Apapa Container Terminal ushers in efficient port operation

Seven years after the Federal Government handed over cargo handling operations in the nation’s seaports to private terminal operators through lease agreement on build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis, Nigerian seaports have no doubt been transformed. Most ports have witnessed increased level of investments in standard cargo handling equipment and terminal infrastructure that is driving efficient port operations and timely delivery of cargoes to the importers’ warehouses.

Apapa Container Terminal, operated by APM Terminals Limited, a global leading container terminal operator, is one terminal that analysts say has witnessed massive investment which has led to increased efficiency in port operation.

The company has since inception invested over $200 million in terminal development as well as cargo handling equipment. The terminal will soon achieve $330 million investment at the completion of the ongoing development works on the Phase III of the terminal.

“Currently, we have achieved between $200 million and $230 million, but when our ongoing project will be completed next year, we will bring the total investment, as also confirmed by Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE) and Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), to $330 million,” said Dallas Hampton, managing director, APM Terminal, during a media tour of the terminal recently to ascertain the performance of the port seven years on.

As confirmed by mobile harbour crane manufacturers in the world, APM Terminals Apapa, which has nine mobile harbour cranes and aims to grow the number to 10 in 2014, is one of the largest mobile harbour crane terminals in the world.

The terminal, which has grown its productivity by 40 percent in the last three years with 600,000 TEUs storage capacity, also plans to grow its capacity by another 40 percent from 600,000 TEUs to 1.2 million TEUs in 2014.

The expansion project, which includes purchase of additional container handling equipment, a new customer service building, new employee amenities buildings, as well as office for Nigeria Customs and a new Customs container inspection area, will convert the terminal to full Rubber-Tyred-Gantry crane (RTG) operated terminal.

“The project includes building of state-of-the-art terminal control systems with a satellite-based container positioning system,” he said, adding that safety is one of the important priorities at the terminal.

“There is a significant difference between our operation and many others. We make sure that people who enter this terminal and those that work here are kept safe to go home each day the way they came to work. This is why we do not allow people to move about within the terminal because they can get killed in the process due to the heavy equipment used in moving containers in the terminal,” the APM Terminal boss said.

Listing the challenges facing the terminal, he said when a vessel arrives at the terminal, it waits between five to six hours to obtain clearance from Customs and other government agencies before the operator will be allowed to take container off the vessel.

“In most ports in the world as soon as the vessel arrives, the operator goes onboard to start work, but for us here we have to wait for Customs, quarantine and immigration and other government authorities to clear the vessel before we can be allowed to discharge the vessel,” he explained.

The implication, he said, is that the cost that the vessel incurs due to delay will be imposed on the importer, who will then transfer it to the end user. Because ships spend an average of $30,000 to $40,000 per day as operational cost, delaying the ship for 12 whole hours will compel the shipping line to transfer the cost to the end user through the shipping charges given to the importer.