APM Terminals and its consortium partners have announced plans to develop a new greenfield mega-port project and Free Trade Zone at Badagry in Nigeria’s Lagos State, 55 km (34 miles) west of Apapa and the Port of Lagos on the Benin-Lagos Expressway.
At full build-out, the deep-water full-service port will be one of the largest in Africa with 7 km of quay and 1,000 hectares (2,470 acres) 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 Inland Container Deport functions.
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 APM Terminals 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”.
Earlier this year, Nigerian Minister of Transport, Senator Idris Umar, cited the proposed Badagry Port project as an example of a public-private partnership development which would help to address congestion and establish Nigeria as a maritime trading hub for West and Central Africa during his keynote address at the 12th Maritime Seminar for Judges in Abuja in June. The Benin-Lagos Expressway is currently being upgraded to a 10-lane highway which will facilitate cargo movements to and from inland destinations in the region.
APM Terminals is currently one of the largest port and terminal operators in Africa, and in West Africa in particular, where APM Terminals Global Terminal Network include nine facilities in eight West African nations, including Apapa Container Terminal, and West Africa Container Terminal in Onne, Nigeria. APM Terminals Apapa, which assumed operations at Lagos’ Apapa Container Terminal in 2006, is now the busiest container terminal in West Africa, handling 600,000 TEUs in 2011, with throughput for 2012 projected to be 720,000 TEUs. Equally important, shipping lines and African shippers have seen significant improvements to supply chain reliability and cost savings.
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Press Release, November 20, 2012