Eastern ports set for cargo competition as APM Terminals invests $30m in Onne port

Importers and businessmen whose businesses are based in the eastern parts of the country have been provided with the opportunity of taking delivery of their consignments from APM Terminals at Onne Oil & Gas Free Zone.

The Onne port, which in recent times has received tremendous investments in excess of $30 million in the area of acquisition of cargo handling equipment, terminal and infrastructure development, has started receiving the largest West Africa-Maximum (WAF-MAX) vessel with 4,500 capacity twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers built and owned by Maersk Shipping Line.

Statistics have shown that majority of the seaports in the east, which include Warri, Port Harcourt, and Calabar ports built by the Federal Government to serve importers from the northern and eastern parts of the country, have been grossly under-utilised by importers.

This, according to BusinessDay checks, could be blamed on high freight charges on imports, security challenges and shallow depth of water that make it difficult for bigger vessels to call eastern ports. Due to the issue of high freight charges at the eastern ports, Nigerian importers prefer ports in Lagos as their destination ports.

The above-mentioned constraints, which make it cheaper to bring cargo through Lagos, have succeeded in ceding about 88.5 percent of Nigerian inbound cargo to Lagos ports leaving the remaining 11.5 percent to the four eastern ports. Ironically, importers in Enugu, Aba, Onitsha, Nnewi and other Eastern Nigerian markets import higher volume of containerised cargo compared to the west and northern parts of the country.

Statistics from the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) show that out of a total 877,737 TEUs of containers that visited Nigerian ports in 2012, about 776,363 TEUs were brought through Lagos ports while the remaining 101,374 TEUs came through the four eastern ports. In 2011, out of a total of 817,246 TEUs of container that were brought into the country, only 80,807 TEUs came through eastern ports while the remaining 736,439 TEUs came through Lagos.

Also, Nigeria in 2012 recorded vehicle traffic of 268,026 units out of which 267,160 units were brought through Lagos ports while the remaining 866 units came through the eastern ports. The volume in 2011 stood at 231,423 units but only 579 came through eastern ports while the remaining 230,844 came through Lagos ports.

However, close industry watchers believe that the new development, which brought about larger vessels calling Onne port, has positioned Onne as one eastern port that has the capacity to compete with the Apapa and Tin-Can Island ports. West African Container Terminals, which is owned and operated by APM Terminals, has a current capacity of 212,000 TEUs, but the terminal aimed to handle about 210,000 TEUs in 2013. Volumes of cargoes handled at Onne port, which is a facility located within the Onne Oil & Gas Free Zone, have grown in the past five years.

“We are very pleased with the arrival of the first 4,500 TEUs vessel size to the West Africa Container Terminal at Onne and we are investing $30 million to install the essential port infrastructure necessary for Nigeria’s economic development and to enable us serve our customers more efficiently and safely,” said Peder Sondergaard, head, Africa-Middle East region, APM Terminals.

According to him, the investment reflects the company’s overall West Africa port modernisation plan designed to serve the market’s demographic growth including the growing middle class. This is as a United Nations report released this year predicted that Nigeria’s population would grow to 440 million by 2050.

The 4,500 TEUs capacity Maersk Copenhagen called APM Terminals’ West Africa Container Terminal (WACT) in Onne (Port Harcourt), Nigeria, on December 3, 2013 and it is the largest vessel to visit the Eastern Nigerian port. The port is located along the Bonny River near Port Harcourt in Rivers State and serves major markets in Eastern Nigeria and the Nigerian oil and gas industry.

Sondergaard disclosed that the NPA was instrumental to the success by widening the channel and removing some wrecks in the Bonny Channel. The port call was a trial stop for Maersk Line’s weekly Far East-West Africa (FEW2) service, which comprises 22 West Africa-Maximum (WAF-MAX) sized vessels that are equipped with on-board cranes with a draught of 12.5 metres (41 feet), (123 feet) wide and 249 metres (817 feet) long. The weekly service links the ports of Busan-Korea-Shanghai-Ningbo, and Guangzhou-China to Tanjung Pelepas to Malaysia to Walvis Bay-Namibia-Apapa-Onne in Nigeria before leaving for Luanda and Angola.

In Nigeria, APM Terminals also owns and operates the country’s largest container terminal, at the Port of Apapa, where it has invested over $200 million in upgrades since it started operations in 2006. The terminal in Apapa handled 618,000 TEUs in 2012, representing West Africa’s busiest container terminal. The company is also developing a new deep-water mega-port at the Badagry Free Trade Zone, 55 km (34 miles) west of Apapa, which would be the largest port in Africa and serve Nigeria’s growing economy.

In West Africa, the APM Terminals Global Terminal Network has facilities in Monrovia, Liberia; Abidjan, Ivory Coast; Tema, Ghana; Cotonou, Benin; Douala, Cameroon; Pointe-Noire, Republic of Congo; and Luanda, Angola.

By: Uzoamaka Anagor