APM Terminals (APMT) has announced plans to develop a new greenfield mega-port project and Free Trade Zone at Badagry in Nigeria’s Lagos State, 55 km west of Apapa and the Port of Lagos on the Benin-Lagos Expressway.
APM T has already put a consortium together for the project, which comprises Terminal Investment Limited (TIL), a company closely associated with the world’s second largest liner shipping company, MSC, the Australian-based Macquarie Group and locally-headquartered oil and gas exploration/services companies Orlean Invest and Oando.
At full build-out, the proposed deepwater full-service port will be one of the largest in Africa with 7 km of quay and 1,000 hectares of dedicated yard, and will include state-of the art facilities for container, bulk, liquid bulk, ro-ro and general cargo, as well as oil and gas operations support and a barge terminal.
Plans for the adjoining Badagry Free Trade Zone will include a power plant, oil refinery, industrial park and warehousing and an inland container depot (ICD). The first phase of the project is scheduled to open in 2016.
“We are actively working with state and federal governments on the permission process” stated APMT’s Africa-Middle East Regional CEO Peder Sondergaard, adding that “the Nigerian Ports Authority, Lagos State and the Nigerian federal Government have been supportive and positive”.
Industry analysts have predicted that Nigerian container volumes, which totaled 1.4M TEU in 2011, will outstrip existing port capacity by 2017. At present, approximately 85% of all Nigerian non-oil cargo passes through the Port of Lagos. Over the next three decades, the country’s annual container traffic is expected to grow to 10M TEU.
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