A privately-owned shipping line, MNM African Shipping Line, which recently commenced operations, has called at the Nigerian seaport with over 900 twenty equivalent units (TEUs) of containers, including bulk and general cargoes. The vessel, which was on its maiden voyage to Nigeria from Europe, has Barcelona, Valencia, Sagunto, Tanger, Casablanca, Agadir, Dakar, Lagos, Tema and Abidjan as the designated seaports. MV SCL Angela vessel berthed at the Terminal ‘C’ of the Tin-Can Island Port, operated by Ports and Cargo Handling Service (PCHS), a subsidiary of Sifax Group. African Shipping Line, has two vessels-Orient Spirit and MV SCL Angela in its fleet. Meanwhile, Sifax Group recently announced that MNM shipping line appointed two of its subsidiaries – Sifax Shipping Nigeria Limited, and Sifax Ghana Limited as its official agents in both Nigeria and Ghana. Executive Director, Administration of Sifax Group, Phil Ofule, noted that the shipping line commenced its operations with the target of ensuring that African shippers have regular access to vessels that will meet their demand for efficient shipment of consignments from ports in Europe, especially new market frontiers.
He noted that Sifax has succeeded in changing the face of terminal operations in Nigeria since 2006 when it took over terminal ‘C’ of Tin-Can Island port. “The calling of MNM African Shipping Line will help in reducing the cost of shipping for Nigerian importers due to the direct services it offers from the designated ports in Europe to West African Ports,” said John Jerkins, Managing Director of PCHS. He assured Nigerian importers of efficient services as, according to him, PCHS has the needed cargo handling equipment such as rubber gantry cranes (RTGs) and others to handle the volume of cargoes that will be brought in by the vessel. Also, Henry Ajor, the General Manager, shipping, who said that the vessel would be coming to the nation’s seaport fortnightly, called on Nigerian shippers to support the shipping line with their consignments, especially the goods originating from the designated ports. According to him, MNM was perfecting plans to extend its call to new destinations across the world as the business continues to grow. The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), Hassan Bello, commended the efforts of the group in bringing the shipping line into the country. He said that NSC would support the group in assuring that the vessel’s participation in the nation’s shipping business was successful. Bello, who was represented by Celina Ifediora, noted that the coming in of MNM vessels into Nigerian port would help in boosting the nation’s import and export trade.
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