By Godfrey BIVBERE
APM Terminals Apapa Limited said it has  lost $67m to some sitting  tenants who have continued of occupy part of the concessioned area four years after.

Managing Director of  APM Terminals Apapa Limited, Mr. Martin Dirks   disclosed this in Lagos on  Tuesday saying  that massive construction work being undertaking at the terminal would bring relief to port users shipping their cargoes through its facility.

Addressing  a post_concession monitoring team of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) led by the Director, Industry and Services, Mr. Allwell Ibe on a    visit to  the company, he said all efforts to get the four companies to vacate the properties have met with a brick wall.

He further explained that the entry and exit gates for trucks have been fully separated with eight lanes leading into, and another nine lanes leading out of, the terminal. This makes a total of 17 truck lanes at the terminal.

The APMT boss also told the BPE team that ongoing construction works including the finishing on the new gate-in-and-gate-out structures and the new office building and workshop will be completed before the end of this year.

According to him, “Already the new gate structure is operational; providing relief and easing off truck traffic at the terminal. The massive construction going on at our terminal will increase capacity and enhance efficiency ten times over. It will optimize traffic flow which will be good for capacity, the environment and for port users too.”
“When we conclude the construction works here, we will have a new look and fully upgraded terminal that Nigeria and Nigerians will be proud of,” Dirks stated.
Dirks pointed out that the new gate, when completed will be fully automated and free of human elements.
“You won’t see anybody at the gate. Just vehicles moving in and out”, he stated, adding that the automated gate system will also put an end to the incidents of container flying.

While thanking BPE for resolving the debacle surrounding the abandonment of scrap equipment at the terminal, Dirks stated that his company has adequate plant and equipment for its level of operation.

He said that additional cargo handling equipment have also been ordered to cope with increasing container volume at the terminal.

“Some of the new equipment arriving soon are new STS cranes that are specially adapted for the new types of vessels that will be coming to West African ports before the end of this year”, he stated.

Dirks also disclosed that Nigerians are already being positioned to take over management positions at APM Terminals even as the number of expatriates working at the terminal has been reduced by half between 2009 and 2010.
He said that the terminal still harbours four companies who have been sitting tenants; taking up viable space at the terminal causing his company to lose $67 million over the past four years of its operation.

Leader of the BPE delegation, Mr. Allwell Ibe, while speaking with journalists shortly after a tour of the terminal said that APMT has done very well in bringing the gains of port reforms to Nigerians.

“All the equipment you see working here were brought in by APM Terminals. They didn’t inherit any equipment from NPA. I think we should give kudos to AP Moller in terms of equipment.

You needed to be in this port around 2003, 2004 or 2005 to know what the port looked like then you will appreciate what APM Terminals has done”, Ibe who stood in for the Acting Director General of BPE, Ms. Bola Onagoruwa, stated.