As the congestion at the nation's seaports in Lagos continue to defile all solutions, about 51 vessels are expected to bring in different consignment to the ports to further compound the problem presently being faced by the terminal operators, even as four of them are scheduled to arrival on Christmas day.
The vessels are expected to arrival the country between Saturday the 20th and Saturday the 27th of December.
From the statistics in the shipping position prepared weekly by the management of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), they ships are expected to bring in consignments ranging from general cargo, old and new vehicles, Bulk cargo and various petroleum products.
The statistics also showed that the largest volume of 21 vessels are expected to have arrivalled Saturday the 20th. On Tuesday the 23rd and Saturday the 27th, six ships are expected each day to berth at the ports in Lagos.
While five ships are expected to come in on Monday the 22nd, four each are to arrival the Lagos ports on the 24th and 25th respectively and on Sunday the 21st and Friday the 26th, three vessels each are expected to berth in Lagos.
About two weeks ago, over 79 ships await berth at ports and oil terminals in Lagos, even as the congestion continues to build. Amongst the consignments that were brought in by the 79 ships are 20,000 containers are awaiting delivery at the Lagos ports in the last one month, excluding more than 10 other congested bonded terminals scattered around the metropolis.
The investigations have further revealed that lack of spaces at the ports and bonded warehouses, has added to the difficulties the terminal operators are experiencing to stem down containers for the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to carry out 100 percent cargo examination on goods categorised under yellow amber light.
Detailed analysis from the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Shipping Position, shows that the number of vessels waiting to discharge at ENL Consortium, APM Terminals, Tin Can Island Container Terminal, Josepdam Terminal, 5-Star Logistics and Ports and Cargo Handling Company, which has gone down to about 30 ship in the last one week, has increased again to 45 vessels.
However, the numbers of vessels waiting at the oil terminals have gone down from 50 to 34 ships, which the operators are speculating may not go gone down beyond 20 unless more jetties are developed in Lagos.
According to the Shipping Position, out of 66 vessels expected to do business at the ports in the next three weeks, 21 will be bringing in 10,919 full container loads of goods, alongside three others with 6,098 metric tons of fishes.