The management of Ports & Cargo Handling Services Limited (PCHS), a terminal operating firm at the Tin Can Island Port Complex, Lagos on Saturday received a ship called Mare Atlanticum,the largest vessel to call at the terminal and in the class of the largest ships calling at any West African port.
The 260-metre long vessel, with a capacity of 4,038 TEUs, berthed at PCHS terminal at 09:55hrs on Saturday May 31, 2014 and was received by the top management and operations staff of the company led by the General Manager, Operations, Mustafa Mohammed and the Managing Director of MSC Nigeria Ltd, Jeff Gosciniak.
The vessel is owned by Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC).
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 called 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 at the reception for the jumbo vessel, Gosciniak emphasized the benefits of his company’s new service which will now be calling PCHS once every week, saying that “Nigerian importers will have their consignment expressly delivered without any transshipment’.
He attributed the successful berthing of the jumbo vessel at the terminal to the hard work, dedication and joint efforts of both PCHS, MSC Nig. Ltd and NPA.
On his part, the General Manager, Operations of PCHS, Mustafa Mohammed, expressed his gratitude to all parties involved in achieving the tremendous success through joint efforts. He also stressed that immense preparation and planning had been put into making the arrival and berthing of the ship a reality.
Mohammed added that PCHS has the capacity to handle the increasing volume of cargo the new service will attract as the company has invested largely in the latest state-of-the-art equipmentranging 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 had early expressed his excitement at the vessel’s during a telephone conversation with Gosciniak.
Afolabi congratulated the staff of both PCHS and MSC for their efforts in turning the dream of hosting the jumbo vessel in Nigeria to reality.
“We have all indeed shown that when partnerships are strong and genuine, there are no limitations as to what can be achieved,” Afolabi said
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