Abstract
The major development within Nigeria' s maritime sector over the past quarter
was the news that
congestion - despite the global downturn in trade - is
still affecting Nigeria' s main port in Lagos. In April
2009 we reported
that the transfer of 2,000 containers from Lagos to the port of Onne had
begun, the idea
being that containers that had been stored in Lagos'
storage areas would be removed to another facility,
thereby freeing up
space at the port.
The tactic appears not to have worked as in May 2009
Business Day Online reported that 28 ships were
awaiting berth at Lagos.
BMI believes that although congestion has continued in 2009, the volume of
ships waiting to berth has dropped compared with last year. BMI notes that the
reason for this is not the
various tactics that have been employed to
combat the congestion, such as moving containers to other
facilities, but
rather the decrease in trade volumes to and from Nigeria.
BMI forecasts
that total tonnage throughput at Lagos is set to fall from 19.5mn tonnes in
2008 to 19.2mn
tonnes in 2009 - a drop of 1.73% year on year (y-o-y). This
fall in trade stems from the decline in
Nigeria' s forecast total import
and export volumes in 2009. BMI estimates that although Nigeria' s imports
are set to grow by 4.95% in 2009, the county' s exports are set to fall by
11.46%. This fall in trade
volumes should ease the pressure of congestion
at the nation' s ports, although BMI warns that with total
throughput at
the ports of Lagos expected to increase by 1.78% in 2010 the easing will be
short lived.
As well as an in-depth analysis of Nigeria' s shipping sector
BMI' s Q309 Nigeria Shipping Report offers a
global overview of the dry
bulk, liquid bulk and container sectors and overviews of the 11 largest
shipping lines and their strategies over the quarter to weather the downturn
in trade volumes.
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