‘Why NPA suspended 4 shipping lines’

The Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) has suspended four shipping lines, namely Maersk, Cosco Shipping, APS, and Lansal for 10 days in the first instance, with effect from today. This is just as it declared the planned introduction of a new service charge called Empty Positioning Fee by shipping lines as illegal, and advised operators not to honour it.

In an e-mailed statement, Isah Suwaid, Assistant General Manager, Corporate and Strategic Communications Division, said the suspension followed checks by the NPA which revealed that the four companies failed to fully comply with the directive to acquire and operate holding bays as they have either failed to utilise their holding bays at all, or do not have adequate capacity to handle the volume of containers that they deal with.

Suwaid also said the suspension was in furtherance of efforts to resolve the protest by truck drivers at the Lagos Port Complex and the Tin Can Island Ports, Lagos.

The statement further indicated that some of the companies had also been found to import a larger number of containers than empty containers exported, thereby making the country a dumping ground for empties. “These conducts have contributed to the persistent congestion around the Lagos Port Complex and the Tin Can Island Port, spreading to other parts of the Lagos metropolis where truck drivers with no immediate business at the ports now park their trucks,” it said.

“At the expiration of this suspension, the [NPA] will review the level of compliance to its directives and determine further actions,” the statement read.

The NPA said in addition to the measures taken, it would henceforth embark on a regular compliance check of the operations of holding bays by shipping companies and terminal operators and defaulters will be sanctioned.