Maritime
The ENL Consortium, operators of Terminals C and D, Lagos Port Complex, Apapa has entered into strategic partnership with a Chinese logistics, Sinoma Cargo International, to evacuate cargo from the port using barges.
The consortium’s Executive Vice Chairman, Princess Vicky Hasstrup, disclosed this at the China-Nigeria Core Liner Conference in Lagos.
Hasstrup said in a statement signed on Monday by the spokesman of ENL Consortium, Mr Bolaji Akinola, that the partnership also incorporated Josephdam Port Services and Lianyungang Port of China.
She said the cargo throughput of Lianyungang port is 210 million ton per year while its container throughput is 5 million Twenty-Foot Equivalent Unit (TEU) per year.
Hasstrup said the existing poor transport infrastructure in Nigeria is affecting the economic performance and competitiveness of the port.
She said the partnership became imperative given the persistent gridlock on the port access roads in Apapa.
Hasstrup said the partnership would help promote mutual cooperation and exchange between Liayungang and the Lagos ports.
”We have been to Lianyungang Port at the invitation of Sinoma, and there, we signed a friendship agreement sometimes in July. They also expressed their willingness to come to Nigerian port to see what ENL and other ports look like.
“This conference was organised to brainstorm on how to have a better operational logistics which is Sinoma’s core duty.
“We know what it is getting in and out of Apapa and discharging of cargo because of the present traffic situation in Apapa and its environs.
“So this afforded us the opportunity to brainstorm on what else can be done under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement other than road since their core business is logistics.
“Sinoma has told us they would want to bring barges that can evacuate cargo at the seaside in large volume. The barges are the types that we have not seen in Nigeria that can take several hundreds of tons of cargo at once.”
She stressed the need for the deployment of intermodal means of transportation at the port, noting that continuous reliance on the road is no longer feasible.
“There has to be investments in other modes of transportation other than road because already the roads are undergoing a lot of pressure because the roads in Nigeria are not built to withstand the kind of pressure that they are subjected to,” she said.
Hasstrup assured stakeholders that terminal operators in the country would continue to provide efficient port services that conform to global standards.
She added that efforts to develop the port industry would achieve greater effects if strategic alliances and partnership are grown, not just between private and public entities alone, but between business entities.
The General Manager, Sinoma Cargo, Li Zhanzhu, said the firm has established good relationship with ENL Consortium and Josephdam Port Services, which both handle several consignments shipped into Nigeria from China.
He said from January 2018 till date, the firm has operated 12 batches of Lianyungang-Lagos logistics line, organised and transported more than 410,000 dead weight of general cargo and transported more than 2,000 TEU of containers.
The products, according to him, cover steel and templates, engineering equipment and tools. (NAN)
– Sept. 10, 2018 @ 11:37 GMT
Tags: Chinese firm partner to move cargo by barges ENL Consortium
