In the first half of this year, H1’24, the number of automobiles imported into the nation dropped precipitously by 60.4% YoY to 10,991, indicating the effects of the depreciating naira and the overall economic slowdown. This was mentioned in the minutes of the Nigerian Port Consultative Council’s, or NPCC, recently ended quarterly meeting.
According to the data, there was a decrease of 60.8% from 28,024 units in 2023 to 10,991 units of vehicles handled over the reviewed period. In line with this pattern, the number of ships calling at the country’s seaports decreased by 4.3% YoY, from 275 in H1’23 to 251 in H1’24.
However, the gross tonnage of ships increased 6.9% to 32.614 million metric tonnes in H1’24 from 30,504, 276 in H1’23, despite the decline in vessel calls. According to the research, there was a 16.1% rise in cargo throughput, excluding crude oil, from 18.234 million metric tonnes in 2023 to 21.186 million metric tonnes in 2021, Vehicle importation.
In 2023, inward freight traffic totalled 13.563 million metric tonnes, or 10.5 percent of total cargo throughput. There were 7.6234 million metric tonnes of outbound goods, or 27.7% of the total. Between January and June of this year, 398,447 containers were handled, which is 2.3 percent more than the 389,303 Twenty Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) handled in 2023.
After more examination, it was discovered that import containers made up 3.4% of all container traffic, or 198,415 TEUs, while export containers made up 1.2% of all container traffic, or 195,106 TEUs. According to a breakdown of export container traffic, approximately 36.3% of all export container traffic consisted of empty containers.
In 2023, the average vessel turnaround time was 5.1 days; in 2024, it was 4.6 days. The Lekki Deep Sea Port, which attained an average turn-around time of just one day, had a major positive impact on the average turn-around time for vessels.
“The larger vessels were berthed at Lekki Port, where the average vessel GRT is 3,801,191, as evidenced by the growth in Gross Registered Tonnage, or GRT, in spite of the decline in vessel calls.
This lends even more credence to the deep seaport’s significance for Nigeria’s port and marine growth. Therefore, in order to prevent Lekki Deep Seaport from sharing Apapa’s fate with regard to cargo evacuation ease, all stakeholders must work together.
