The development of the new Regional Trade Distribution Centre (RTDC) in Cairns is starting to kick off, thanks to a continued strong health response to.
The Streetjournal Magazine is an online investigating media house that specializes on systematic, serious crimes, political corruption or corporate wrongdoing.
By Chiazo Ogbolu
Lagos, Feb. 10, 2021 Ports & Cargo Handling Services, a subsidiary of SIFAX Group, is targeting 300,000 Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) cargo capacity for 2021.
Mr John Jenkins, Managing Director, Ports & Cargo Handling Services, disclosed this in a statement in Lagos on Wednesday.
A TEU or Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit is an exact unit used to measure cargo capacity for container ships and container terminals.
Jenkins said that the terminal recorded an increase of 12,153 TEUs to cap at 242,195 TEUs in 2020 compared with 230,042 TEUs achieved in 2019.
He said that the target, though ambitious, was achievable in view of impressive performance posted in 2020, in spite of the myriads of challenges in the maritime sector.
Because of their penchant for stopping haulage vehicles to collect illegal fees, long stretches of vehicles are the norm. With this, over 40 ships are at anchorage at the port due to lack of space to discharge new cargoes at terminals as cargo evacuation is hampered by the multiple toll points mounted by security operatives and Presidential Task Force (PTF) members.
Truck drivers allege that they pay over N200,000 per truck at the checkpoints illegally erected on the port access roads.
The Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) had earlier threatened to embark on strike over the suffering its members are subjected to as a result of the gridlock. But following pacification by the management of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), the planned strike was suspended.
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No fewer than 43 vessels laden with various goods are currently stuck in Lagos waters as congestion stalls operations at Nigeria’s busiest ports, the TinCan Island Port and Apapa Port in Lagos.
The nation’s import and export dealing is, also, in shambles, as prevailing congestion at ports caused a spike in shipping costs for Nigeran-bound goods by about 600 per cent.
The situation has thrown port operators at TinCan and Apapa ports into a state of confusion as containers are stranded at the terminals, while vessels are delayed unnecessarily on the waters due to limited stacking space.