The Onne Multipurpose Terminal (OMT) has announced that it has received the “largest container ship ever” to carry out full operations at Nigeria’s eastern ports.
The vessel, ‘Kota Cempaka’, owned by Pacific International Lines (PIL), measures 300 metres in length and can carry 6,600 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers.
According to OMT CEO, Jim Stewart, this is the second visit of the ship to the terminal in three months.
Stewart said the vessel was received on August 5 by officials of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and OMT. He noted that the ship’s first visit to the port was on April 27, where it loaded and discharged over 2,000 containers full of Nigerian imports and exports.
“The arrival of such large vessels is part of a global trend where shipping lines are upscaling vessel sizes to achieve economies of scale and reduce transport costs for importers and exporters,” Stewart said.
Stewart added that the visit of the Kota Cempaka to Nigeria would support the federal government’s efforts to diversify the country’s economic base by boosting non-oil exports.
