Shipping firm begins Ogun-Apapa rail haulage // Economy Update
Shipping firm begins
Ogun-Apapa rail haulage
Nigeria’s shipping and cargo logistics services provider, Hull
Blyth, has opened a rail hub at Wasimi, Ewekoro Local Government Area of Ogun
State.
The Wasimi rail hub, which is the first of its kind in Nigeria,
will allow shippers to receive import containers from Apapa port and also send
export/empty containers to the port.
The Managing Director of Hull Blyth, Christian Holm, who disclosed
this in Lagos, said the new rail hub would reduce the high cost of transporting
containers to and from the port by road.
He said: “We started this project because we are concerned about
the pains shippers go through in moving their boxes in and out of the Apapa port
in Lagos due to the congestion on the port access road.
“We are happy to inform all shippers in the southwest and other
parts of Nigeria that they no longer have to go through the pains of tracking
their containers to Apapa.”
Holm said it was time shippers took advantage of the rail services
to relieve themselves of the stress and high cost of road haulage.
He said the rail hub brings several benefits to the trading
community and the Nigerian economy, adding that empty containers returned to
the Wasimi rail hub would not attract demurrage.
He said the rail hub has commenced full operation, as the first
train of both export and empty containers have been successfully delivered to
APM Terminals at the Apapa port within only hours of transit from Wasimi.
Holm added that the Wasimi rail hub will also save importers,
exporters and agents as much as 50 per cent of logistics costs since it is much
cheaper to move goods by train.
He further said the Wasimi rail hub is the precursor to a dry
port, which is already under construction, adding that when completed, the dry
port, will have the capacity to handle up to 7,000 twenty-foot Equivalent Units
(TEUs) and will be fully connected to Apapa port by rail.
Nigeria News Paper
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