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Frustration as port charges rise

By on July 4, 2014

A few weeks ago, stakeholders in the Nigeria’s maritime industry met with the Nigerian Shippers Council. One of the issues discussed was the alleged indiscriminate charges imposed on importers and clearing agents by port terminal operators and shipping agencies.

Since the inception of the concession programme, there has been a litany of complaints from some disappointed stakeholders. Of great concern to importers and clearing agents has been the indiscriminate manner in which terminal operators and shipping agencies are said to award charges for their services.

Some importers and clearing agents who spoke with THE PUNCH listed some of the means by which they were allegedly being fleeced by terminal operators and shipping agencies. One of them is said to be through the positioning of containers for examination by relevant security agencies.

An importer, Emmanuel Uneze, said, “When you ask for your consignment to be examined, it has to be positioned by the terminal operator. If it takes three or four days for them to deploy their equipment to position your container, you are made to pay demurrage for those days. It doesn’t matter that the delay came from them. Although some of them have attributed the delay to insufficient equipment, I believe it is just a deliberate tactic on their part to make more money.

If the demurrage wasn’t so high, one might not have been so offended but unfortunately it is. We pay N12,000 per day for demurrage. You can imagine what happens when you have to wait a week simply because the terminal operator is not ready. We are just paying for their inefficiency. Although we paid such charges at the time the Nigeria Ports Authority was in charge of the ports, the amount was negligible.”

Clearing agents said they were also made to pay for any damage to machine which might occur while stacking or lifting containers.

A clearing agent, Mr. David Pius, said, “If you are unfortunate to have the forklift go bad while your container is being lifted or stacked, you may be told to raise a debit note to cover the damage. If in the process of arranging containers, a piece of equipment gets damaged, the importer is charged for the damage. Meanwhile, all these pieces of equipment are being operated by employees of the terminal operators. It is really frustrating. Even if you complain, nobody answers.”

Pius also lamented the practice by shipping agencies of making daily deductions from container deposits made by clearing agents until empty containers are returned back to them.

He said, “We usually make deposit for containers with shipping agencies until the empty containers are returned to them. The amount you pay is determined by the size of the container and the distance to be covered before its contents are discharged at the warehouse. So, if your container’s destination is outside Lagos, the deposit will be higher.

“It is one thing to pay the deposit and another to get it back after the empty container has been returned. The shipping agencies have this policy of making daily deductions from your deposits until your container is returned. So, if it takes you a week to get the container out of the ports to the warehouse and back, deductions will be made daily until you return. I see no reason why any deduction should be made at all when the importers and clearing agents have no plans of keeping the containers; we always return them.

“While some shipping agencies give a few days of grace before making their deductions, others start immediately the container leaves the port.

“Another thing they do is that if the shipping company is preparing documents to release your consignment and their server goes down, that means you can no longer take your consignment. You will have to wait up until the server is up. The clearing agent/importer ends up paying for this. By the time the server is up, you will still have to raise another debit note for the number of days your container remained with them while the server was down.”

Pius called on the Federal Government to give the NSC the necessary legal backing to take action against errant shipping agencies and terminal operators.

Another importer, who identified himself simply as Chinedu, said that there had been situations where trucks returning empty had been forced to wait for days simply because the empty container site was full.

Even in such situations, Chinedu said shipping agencies would still go ahead and make deductions from the container’s deposit.

He said, “Deposits for a 1x20ft container, for instance, could go as high as N100,000. That of a refrigerated container could cost as high as N1m. Now, imagine that you were able to get the empty container back to the shipping agency in good time, only to be told that they cannot receive it because the site for the empty containers is full. While you are waiting for your container to be taken, which could take days, these people go ahead to make deductions from your deposit. But the delay is coming from them and not you.

“The port operators are no better. They also make us to incur more costs because of their inefficiency. For instance, when a ship berths at the port, the terminal operators will immediately deploy all their equipment to offload the ship because the demurrage charges for ships are paid in dollars; so they don’t delay them. Meanwhile you are kept waiting with your trucks, waiting for your container to be loaded and you are being charged demurrage. It is not right.”

THE PUNCH gathered that some of the shipping agencies often gave some days of grace to importers and clearing agencies before making deductions from their deposits. The deductions varied from agency to agency.

For instance, Pacific International Lines gives a grace period of five days; after which the importer will be made to pay a daily charge of N2,900 on a sealed 1x20ft container for the next six to 10 days or N4,450 daily on a 1x40ft container.

If the container is not returned by the next 11 to15 days, the levy will be increased to N4,300 daily 1x20ft container; and N6,550 on a 1x40ft container.

At the Maersk Shipping Line, after the five days of grace, the next six to 10 days will attract a charge of N4,600 for a one by 40 feet container. The next 11 to 16 days, a charge of N6,950 daily applies; 17 to 22 days, N8, 325 daily and 23 to 28 days, N9,700 daily.

For Mid Maritime Shipping Agency, the importer will incur a charge of N2,100 daily for the first seven days on a 1x40ft container; the next five days after will attract a charge of N5,800 daily; the following five days will attract N9,600 daily. Any delay in returning the empty container after this will then attract a charge of N10,500 daily.

When THE PUNCH contacted the spokesperson of the NSC, Mr. Ignatius Nweke, said, “Yes, we held a meeting with stakeholders last month; this issue of exorbitant charges were among many others discussed.

“The shipping agencies have assured us that they will discuss the matter and get back to the NSC. They are expected to get back with their decision in three weeks. It is only then the NSC would determine the next course of action.”

However the spokesperson for the Shipping Association of Nigeria, Mr. Val Usifoh, did not respond to calls and a text message to his phone.

But the Chairman of the Seaport Terminal Operators Association, Dr. Vicky Haastrup, had in previous reports at a recent presss conference in Lagos, said, “The concessionaires are not responsible for the increase in the cost of operations at the ports. There are shipping agents; clearing agents and others. Who’s looking into their activities? Shipping agents’ tariffs are even higher than terminal operators’ charges but nobody talks about that. There are a lot of charges that the ship agents are not supposed to charge but they do. Who’s looking at those things?”

 

 

[Punch]