WACT hits three million man-hours without lost time injury 

APM Terminals’ West Africa Container Terminal (WACT), Onne, Rivers State, on Friday, recorded a significant safety milestone by achieving three million man-hours without Lost Time Injury (LTI) in its ongoing Phase Two terminal upgrade and expansion.

No Lost Time Injury (LTI), which is a key indicator of the effectiveness of an organisation’s safety program, means no injury was sustained on the job by an employee or contractor that resulted in the person being away from work due to his or her injury.

In 2020, WACT launched its USD110 million Phase Two upgrade. The upgrade covers the acquisition of three additional Mobile Harbour Cranes (MHCs) to bring the number of MHCs at the terminal to five; acquisition of 20 Rubber Tyre Gantry Cranes (RTGs); three Reach Stackers; 13 terminal trucks and trailers, an empty container handler, deployment of reefer racks with 600 plugs capacity, as well as paving of the current yard and expansion by 13 hectares, new workshop and new terminal gate complex.

Speaking recently at an event to mark the three million man-hours without LTI, the Country CEO of APM Terminals Nigeria, Frederik Klinke, described the feat as an enormous achievement.

“My congratulations go out to each and everyone of you who has kept yourselves and your colleagues safe. Safety is not an individual thing; it is a collective thing. You look out for your brother and for your sister, and that is how we ensure that everyone gets home safe. This is the first duty for all of us. Whether you are handling containers or building materials, don’t take your eyes off the ball.

“We have a very big inauguration coming up, and we want to be ready for that, but there is not going to be any inauguration ceremony if we are not keeping each other safe. Despite all the stress, safety remains our primary obligation, and it is a huge achievement that you have managed to deliver the vast majority of this project without LTI. I am immensely proud.

“For APM Terminals, safety is the first element of our ‘safer, bigger and better’ strategy. This is a live illustration of the importance that we in APM Terminals put on safety, not only for our operators but certainly also for everyone that comes to our premises to work,” Klinke said.

Also speaking, WACT Project Manager, Kingsley Nwafor, said the three million man-hours without LTI demonstrates the commitment of APM Terminals WACT to a culture of safety.

“Most important to us is that we don’t just do the job, but we ensure that we get back to our families safe. I can assure you that this wouldn’t have been possible without the support of all the team members. It has not been easy to get to this milestone. We had to use different methods to get this success, and for us here, personal protective equipment (PPE) is the last line of defence – it is not the first thing we look out for. We try as much as possible to eliminate hazards in the workplace. We won’t only celebrate three million man-hours without LTI, but we’ll see to it that we deliver the entire project without LTI,” he said.

WACT is the first greenfield terminal built in Nigeria under the public-private partnership initiated by the Federal Government in 2003. Located in the Onne Oil and Gas Free Zone in Rivers State, WACT caters to the greater Port Harcourt area and Eastern Nigeria, including the oil and gas industry. Since inception, WACT has played a pivotal role in successfully connecting the South-South, South-East, North and West Central Nigeria to the global trading community.