Largest Container Vessel To Ever Arrive Lagos Berths At Taiwo Afolabis’s Port & Cargo Handling Services

…details of the deal that will boost the economy

A new sea time operation that will boost the nation’s economy, with Taiwo Afolabi’s Port & Cargo Handling Services playing a strategic role is on.

Here are details of the development

‪’The management of Ports & Cargo Handling services Ltd. (A subsidiary of Sifax Group) in collaborations with Mediterranean Shipping Company Nig. Ltd. (MSC) on Saturday, May 31 2014, received ‘MARE ATLANTICUM’, the largest container vessel to ever call Lagos Pilotage District.

‘The 260-metre long vessel, with a capacity of 4,038 TEUs, berthed at P&CHS terminal at 09:55hrs and was received by top management and operations staff of PCHS, led by the General Manager, Operations, Mustafa Mohammed and the Managing Director of MSC Nig. Ltd (agents for MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A), Jeff Gosciniak.

The entire team who were all on ground and ready for vessel operations had been waiting in anticipation since MSC announced the start of its dedicated service between Asia and West Africa, which they call the ‘Africa Express’. This service was introduced in order to improve the transit time of the already existing service from the initial 44 days to 28 days.

In his speech, the Managing Director of MSC Nig. Ltd, Jeff Gosciniak emphasized the benefits of this new service, which will now be calling PCHS once every week, saying that “Nigerian importers will have their consignment expressly delivered without any trans-shipment’. He added that this will have a ripple effect throughout the Nigerian economy as a whole.

‘He however attributed this service to the hard work, dedication and joint efforts of both PCHS, MSC Nig. Ltd and NPA, who all not only made this possible but also a huge success.

Also speaking on the day, the General Manager, Operations, Mustafa Mohammed, expressed his gratitude to all parties involved in achieving this tremendous success through joint efforts. He also stressed that immense preparation and planning had been put into making this a reality and that PCHS will continue to meet up to and exceed future expectations.

‘Mr. Mohammed added that PCHS has the capacity to handle the increasing volume of Cargo this new service will attract, as the company has invested largely in the latest state-of-the-art equipment’s, ranging from the recently purchased rubber tyred gantries (RTGs) to mobile harbor cranes and terminal trucks.

The Group Executive Vice Chairman/CEO of Sifax Group, Dr. Taiwo Afolabi who was unavoidably absent at the event was certainly not left out as he expressed his gladness during a telephone conversation with Mr. Gosciniak. He congratulated both PCHS and MSC for their efforts in turning this dream into a reality, saying that “we have all indeed shown that when partnerships are strong and genuine, there are no limitations as to what can be achieved”.

The vessel owners, Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A, commended PCHS for their “fantastic performance” on the vessel operations and also implored the terminal to ensure that they keep up the good work, especially now that they will be having increasing volumes of cargo’