The clash inside MSC – tensions on the rise
Untangling the spider’s web – stay tuned and carry on
DSV: FLIRTING WITH NEW LOWS ODFL: TIME TO BE A BIT MORE CAUTIOUS CHRW: PRICE TARGET CUT BUT 'BUY' NOWAMZN: NEW AI BOND OFFERING ZIM: HAPAG DEAL UPDATEWTC: DOWN FWRD: BOTTOM FISHING
DSV: FLIRTING WITH NEW LOWS ODFL: TIME TO BE A BIT MORE CAUTIOUS CHRW: PRICE TARGET CUT BUT 'BUY' NOWAMZN: NEW AI BOND OFFERING ZIM: HAPAG DEAL UPDATEWTC: DOWN FWRD: BOTTOM FISHING
On a prime ministerial visit to Denmark this week, Nigerian officials signed a memorandum of understanding with APM Terminals to develop a new greenfield container terminal at Badagry.
“The agreement commits the parties to exclusive negotiations to explore the development of Badagry Port, where the deepwater capacity would be transformational in strengthening Nigeria’s role as a leading gateway port in West Africa and creating significant new transhipment opportunities.
“By enabling larger container vessels to call Nigeria, the project would support growth, greater supply chain resilience, and new trade opportunities. APM Terminals is committed to carrying forward development of Badagry,” APMT said.
The proposed facility is located on the south-western outskirts of the country’s commercial hub of Lagos and would add to the three terminals already serving the sprawling conurbation – APMT’s Apapa Container Terminal, CMA GCM’s Lekki Free Port, and the Tin Can Island facility jointly operated by Zim, China Merchants, and MSC’s regional port operator, Africa Global Logistics.
In truth, the Badagry project has been on the drawing board for well over a decade – APMT first declared an interest in 2012 and, according to the original schedule, was due to begin for operations in 2016, as Alphaliner noted this week.
“In 2012, a consortium led by APM Terminals with Orlean Invest, Macquarie, Oando, Chagoury Group and Terminal Investment Limited announced plans to build the new greenfield port, whose first phase was due to open in 2016 with 6,500 metres of quay and 39 ha of yard.”
But it has sat in abeyance ever since, understandable during a period when Nigeria was beset by sectarian violence, political and economic turmoil, as well as an outburst of regional piracy.
However, from a purely port industry perspective, the main problem for APMT was the development of nearby Lekki, initially under the ownership of Filipino operate ICTSI, starting in 2012. It finally began operations in 2023, although by that time ownership had changed as it had been acquired by CMA CGM and its sometime financial partner, China Merchants.
Alphaliner reported: “East of Lagos, the new Lekki port opened in 2023 and its container facility the Lekki Free Port Terminal (LFPT), which is controlled by the French shipping line CMA CGM. In addition to this, MSC plans to develop a new container terminal at Snake Island, near Lagos Tin Can.”
However, the picture is radically different today – as analysed by Loadstar Premium in June, the container shipping trades serving Nigeria and the wider West African trades have been showing some of the sharpest volume growth rates ever seen in container shipping, propelled by a slew of belt and road investment by Chinese firms over the past two years, and served by a range of new container terminals that have allowed carriers, MSC in particular, to deploy ultra-large box ships to the burgeoning China-West Africa route.
However, in terms of port development for this new era of trade, Nigeria has lagged its regional neighbours – as evidenced by the fact that MSC’s flagship AFL service, where vessels have an average capacity of 17,300 teu, according to Xeneta’s eeSea liner database, does not feature a single call in Nigeria, preferring to unload in MSC-controlled terminals in Tema, Lome, Abidjan, and Kribi.
According to eeSea, MSC’s Tin Can Island facility has a capacity of just 700,000 teu, while Apapa offers 1.2m teu and Lekki 2m teu, and would suggest that a market with Nigeria’s considerable potential could now easily accept fresh terminal capacity.
“APM Terminals is keen to contribute to Nigeria’s economic growth and position as a trade hub in West Africa,” said APMT MD of Africa & Europe Igor van den Essen. “We believe further investing long-term in our concessions in Apapa and Onne helps doing that, and we were pleased to have a constructive dialogue about this today.
“Additionally, developing Badagry as a greenfield project will further ease congestions in city ports and further open new opportunities,” he added.
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