How Lagos congestion is boosting eastern ports vessel call —Investigations

When in November 2019 leading container operator at the Apapa port, APM Terminals warned of a possible high yard density otherwise known as congestion following government policies which included the closure of the nation’s land borders, many never envisaged the confusion that would arrive in December. By the yuletide, the congestion issue in Lagos had resulted in high yard density with grave consequences on berthing of vessels, and vessel queues at the Lagos port.

But while the confusion in Lagos lasted, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), through aggressive marketing of the eastern ports via a shipping charges rebate, has ensured that the nation’s eastern ports now bask in new found euphoria of container ship traffic that had eluded them in a decade.

Calabar Port

For more than 11 years since Baco Liner Services and Maersk Line Shipping Company, (the two major shipping lines that operated container ship services to Calabar port), stopped visiting the port, there were calls for the revival of the Calabar port.

Buoyed by the calls to revive the eastern ports, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), in June of 2019, approved the highly celebrated 10 per cent rebate on ship charges for all container-ships that decide to use the eastern ports. With this incentive, the MV Boreas,  a container ship owned by Marguisa shipping company made a successful maiden voyage to Calabar port in September, 2019.

From all indications, it would appear that the successful maiden voyage of MV Boreas provided the much-needed pep for more traffic of container vessels to Calabar Port, because barely two months after MV Boreas called, two more container vessels, MV Zea Walawe and MV MCP Adamax commenced calls to Calabar Port, with the duo arriving back-to-back at Calabar Port in November 2019.

The impressive average turnaround time of 2 days recorded on all container ships that called at Calabar port appeared to be a fulfilment of the promise of cooperation and partnership given by the Calabar Port Business Community and government agencies to all shipping operators desiring to use the Port. With the successful voyage of MV Boreas, Marguisa Shipping Line has dedicated a Container Vessel to operate regular calls to Calabar Port and there are indications that more container ships will join the Calabar route.

Rivers Port

Situated in the volatile Gulf of Guinea (GoG), the Rivers Port has had its fare share of insecurity issues which had hampered vessel calls at the ports in time past.

With the NPA’s 10 per cent rebate and increased Naval patrol of the Rivers Port environs, normalcy seems to have returned to the port following indications of rise in vessel call traffic.

The  2019 eastern port operational records obtained exclusively by the Nigerian Tribune showed that the Rivers port has recorded about nine vessels which have called for the first time, hence increasing cargo throughput and revenue for the Port.  These vessels, ordinarily, would had stopped at Lagos Port which is already congested.

Some of the vessels that called are: Navigator Capricon owned by the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG), which berthed at Stockgap jetty on October 30, 2019, with length overall of 160m, gross tonnage of 18311, NRT 5493 DW 233333 with cargo Brutane.

MV Northern Dance, a vessel with length overall of 180m and draft of 9.12m came in on May 22, 2019, and discharged 26,000MT in Port Harcourt. MV Zafer came in on the September 8, 2019, with a length overall of 180m and draft of 2.76m; and discharged 22,000Metric Tonnes of Bulk wheat. MV Kota Bakti came in on February 18, 2019, with a length overall of 161.33m and draft of 9.6m, discharging general cargo of 1074Metric Tonnes in Port Harcourt with IPL as Nigerian Agent.

MV JSP Porto came in on February 25, 2019, with a length overall of 130.16m and draft of 6.3m, bringing 10 containers of 965 Metric Tonnes and 10 Containers of 224. 82 Metric Tonnes with Alraine as Nigerian agent. MV Skala came in on March 22, 2019, with a length overall of 149.9m and draft of 9.5m, discharging 29,010 Metric Tonnes of Salt in Port Harcourt with the Westridge General Cargo vessels.

MV Union Bienhvendo arrived Port Harcourt port in April, 2019, with a Length Overall of 169.37M and draft of 9.36M, discharging Gypsum of 25,000metric tonnes with Nura Shipping acting as the agent. On November 11, MV Arslan came in with a length overall of 91.91m, and draft of 5.7m., discharging 3101Metric Tonnes of Gypsum, and Fejudam acting as her Nigerian agent.  On December 12, 2019, Road Runner, a vessel with length overall of 189.99M and draft of 7M, discharged 18,000 Metric Tonnes of Bulk Wheat at Port Harcourt port with Callison as her Nigerian Agent.

Onne Port

Onne Port, which is regarded as one of the most modern Ports with huge potentials among the Ports operated by the PA, has recorded a significant milestone, taking  advantage of the port facilities and the current permissible draft of 10.6 metres.

On December 8, 2019, JPO Volans a Maersk-Line vessel that would ordinarily had gone to Lagos Port, headed towards the eastern flanks of the nation’s waterways and berthed at the West African Container Terminal (WACT) berth 8.  JPO Volans is the first gearless and largest container vessel, with a Length Overall of 265.07 metres to call at any eastern Ports of Nigeria.

The German flagged vessel with a dead weight tonnage of 50334.4, Gross Registered Tonnage of 41,225 was successfully berthed after proper planning which included the deployment of the expertise and experience of the Onne Port Manager, Onne Port Harbours and the Maersk Line team.

For WACT at Onne Port, the port operator has witnessed an increase in vessel calls and cargo throughput in 2019 compared to what obtained in 2018. According to data obtained exclusively by the Nigerian Tribune, while the WACT facility in Onne port handled 216,043 Metric Tonnes of cargoes between January to November of 2018, the facility in 2019 has already surpassed that mark and handled 275,802 Metric Tonnes of cargoes so far in 2019.

For Brawal terminal, also at Onne Port, following the last vessel call of a Baco Liner vessel in 2012, the port has in 2019 opened up another window of opportunities which paved way for Brawal Terminal to add containerization to its Oil and Gas logistic activities.

On August 1, 2019, Brawal Terminal received the first container vessel MSC Grace at berth, which made a total of five voyages during the period under review. MSC Grace was later substituted with MSC Maria which has made a total of nine voyages so far.

With this improved vessel calls, Brawal Terminal cargo throughput for tanker vessels in 2019 has jumped to 6,987.063 Metric Tonnes from 3,922.013 Metric Tonnes recorded in 2018, recording a 78.15 per cent increase in tanjer activities.

For container traffic, Brawal recorded just 50 Teu in the whole of 2018 but has now recorded 3,702 Teu in 2019. For General cargoes, Brawal recorded 17,985.293 Metric Tonnes in 2018 but have now done 23,197.366 Metric Tonnes in 2019, signifying an increase of 30.01 per cent in general cargo handling.