By AISHA COLE

The Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) says it is taking immediate measures to remove 616 long-standing export containers trapped in Lagos ports.

The Executive Secretary, NSC, Mr Pius Akutah, said this when his team visited the APM Terminal Complex in Apapa, Lagos, on Friday.

He expressed concern over the growing number of abandoned export containers due to non-compliance with regulatory guidelines.

Akutah said there were plans to engage stakeholders to address the issue while emphasising the importance of promoting ease of documentation for exporters

The council needs to quickly bring the service providers, regulators, government agencies and exporters together on one table to discuss and discover where the problem lies.

We would also take up issues of awareness creation to sensitise exporters on how to comply with the export procedure.

NSC will work towards promoting ease of documentation by exporters.

The council needs to do that very quickly because the present situation is not helping the economy, especially as the government is trying to promote exports to earn scarce dollars, Akutah said.

Akutah emphasised the need to put a mechanism in place to stop export containers that had not completed the necessary documentation from entering the port to avoid the pilling of overtime cargo.

Earlier, Kayode Daniel, Government Relations Manager at APM Terminals, said that 1,940 containers had been in Apapa Port between zero day and 10 days, adding that 1,524 containers had stayed between 11 days and 20 days.

Daniel said that 757 containers had stayed between 21 days and 30 days, while 616 had stayed between 31 days and over two years, noting that this classified them as abandoned export containers.

He said that APM Terminals had been pushing for the evacuation of the trapped export containers and had received a commitment from shipping lines.

According to him, these include Maersk, CMA, CGA and Zim to move about 2,752 export containers out of the port in the next five days.

Daniel said that the inability of some exporters to complete the processes required for export containers to leave the port was creating operational bottlenecks for the terminal operator.

This, he noted, was by way of multiple handling of export containers.

Daniel said that exporters had been complaining of ineffective export procedures.

The export procedures are not moving fast; not knowing the technicalities of their action or inaction because Customs will not authorise the loading of an export without proper documentation.

There is an established process that is clearly defined by government agencies, but some exporters are not complying with it strictly, he added.

The terminal manager, APM Terminals, Mr Steen Knudsen, said that technically, export container was not supposed to stay within the port terminal for more than seven days, adding that all shipping lines come to Apapa on a weekly frequency.

Knudsen said that the terminal operator could not mandate the shipping line to load the container as it was an arrangement strictly between the exporter, Customs and the shipping line.

According to him, most of these export containers that arrive at the port were ˜good to go but it is only when they get to the port that Customs and other authorities will discover some missing elements.

He said that discovering the missing element by officials would enable the shipping line not to load the containers.

Knudsen said that the service providers, Shippers Council, Customs, Nigerian Ports Authority and other players need to work together to improve the export process in Nigerian ports.

Also contributing, the General Manager Legal of APM terminal, Mrs Chinenye Deinde, said there was a need to critically examine the export value chain to identify the source of the problem.

She said that the clearance needed for export was not only regulatory by the government, adding that shippers also need to pay the freight for the shipping line to lift the container.

Deinde said that the business agreement that the exporter enters into with the shipping line made it mandatory for the shipping company to lift the export boxes if only the exporter complies with all the trade guidelines. (NAN)