Cost of doing business in Onne port drops as WAFMAX vessel makes direct entry from China

As Maersk Line makes direct call from Asia, especially China, to Nigeria with about 4,500 containers loaded in one West Africa Maximum (WAFMAX) vessel, it provides an opportunity for importers based in the eastern part of the country to enjoy reduced cost of doing business in Onne port.

This is as the importers, who used to come to Lagos ports to take delivery of their consignments and also spend a minimum of N300,000 as transportation cost to truck operators to bring goods down to their base, can now save such huge transport cost by taking delivery of their consignment from the nearby Onne port.

Jan Thorhauge, managing director, Maersk Nigeria Limited and head of the Central West Africa Cluster, said in an interview that the arrival of the WAFMAX container vessel at Onne port in Rivers State would make transportation of goods more economically viable for Nigerian importers.

According to him, the arrival of the vessel would reduce the costs of transportation of goods from Lagos to other parts of the country such that instead of carrying a maximum of 2,500 containers on one ship as done in the past, over 4,500 containers could be carried by one WAFMAX vessel.

“It is going to be much more cost-efficient. In practice, it would mean that Nigerian imported products would become more competitive because China is a very big sourcing area for Nigeria as almost 50 percent of all containerised imports into Nigeria come from China. So this is a direct link between China and Nigeria. It goes first to Lagos and then to Onne,” he explained. Thorhauge, who commended the commitment of the stakeholders in Onne port which led to the arrival of the jumbo vessel, also added that the opportunity would enable Maersk Line to add more value to customers.

“And, by adding this value to our customers, they will also reciprocate by giving us more business,” he said.

He observed that the turnaround time of WAFMAX vessel, which started calls at Apapa port, Lagos, in July 2011 at the cost of cost $2.1 billion, was twice faster than the smaller ships. “Actually, a couple of years ago, the reason we could not bring the big ships there was because of the depth of the water where some port was not deep enough to accommodate larger vessel,” he said.