NPA reviews suspension order on Maerskline, Cosco Shipping, APS and Lansal

Few days after the Vice President Yemi Osibanjo stormed the troubled Apapa port city and brought some measures of sanity in the area, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), said it has restored the services of the four shipping companies whose operations were suspended for their failure to comply with the directive of acquiring and operating holding-bays for their empty containers.

The affected shipping companies whose suspension took effect from Saturday, July 14th, 2018 include Maerskline, Cosco Shipping, APS and Lansal, and their operations were practically suspended for about 10 days.

According to a statement signed by Isah Suwaid, assistant general manager, corporate and strategic communication of NPA, and sent to BusinessDay, the affected shipping companies have now been given two weeks, beginning from Friday July 20th 2018, to comply with four conditions to ensure sustainable relationship.

The conditions include that the affected companies must increase the capacity of their holding-bays ranging from 1,800 Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) to 7,500 TEUS.

In addition, the affected companies will sign-off on the volume capacity of their individual holding-bays verified at the end of the grace period and that at the expiration of the two weeks, an inspection will be conducted to ascertain compliance level.

Also, the NPA said it will not hesitate to give out further sanctions on failure to meet the said conditions.

It could be recalled that a fortnight ago, shipping services of Maersk line, Cosco Shipping, APS and Lansal were suspended by the NPA for their inability to upgrade their holding-bays capacities. The suspension was for 10 days in the first instance.

The two weeks period of grace granted to the four affected shipping companies was sequel to a meeting, which the management of the Authority held with officials of the companies over the weekend.

The decision by the NPA to grant the period of grace was after due consideration of their presentations at the meeting and a subsequent joint inspection on their existing facilities.

A formal letter dated 20th July, 2018 informing the accepted companies of the review of the suspension order signed by Joshua Asanga, general manager, Marine & Operations, on behalf of the managing director, Hadiza Bala Usman, has since been dispatched to the companies.

AMAKA ANAGOR