The synergy between foreign terminal giant, the APMT Apapa, and the Cotecna scanning group may have significantly improved container scanning as the APMT announced at the weekend that its efforts had reduced waiting time for scanning from five to about two days.The disclosure which subtly confirmed importer's complaints of delays and subsequent payment of demurrage by importers in the past, was made by the APMT Nigeria Managing Director, Mr. Dallas Hampton, who also warned that except other stakeholders fully cooperated with his management's vision, the current gains could slip away.'It is necessary to emphasise that APMT is not responsible for scanning of containers; it is the responsibility of Cotecna and the Nigeria Customs Service. All we have done is to assist in the logistics process to facilitate scanning and we are pleased that our intervention is paying off in the interest of importers and agents, our aim is to serve up to 90 per cent of customers within two working days', stated Hampton, stressing the need for terminal users' strict adherence to agreed maximum number of containers that can be handled by the scanning and logistics system, daily.'For optimal result, it is important to stress that our customers and the Nigeria Customs Service do not nominate more than 200 containers per day for scanning otherwise there will be backlog because that is the maximum capacity that the new process can accommodate', he stated.The Managing Director of APM Terminals, who also noted that the effects of the newly adopted measures were initially slow, observed that the process had now 'improved significantly', and added that things were now in good shape, even as the terminal operator continues to seek new ways of ensuring further improvement.'It was a little slow getting the process to run optimally due to several constraints, not all of which were under APMT's control but I am happy to say that the scanning process has now picked up significantly. There has been a more than two hundred per cent increase in the number of containers that are being scanned daily over the 70 to 75 containers that were being scanned before our takeover of the scanning logistics', Hampton stated, highlighting that the APM Terminals Apapa had also introduced an SMS alert system at the terminal to notify customers immediately their containers had completed scanning.Hampton debunked speculations that his company was in short supply of adequate space for cargo examination at the terminal, pointing out that an area measuring almost six hectares was devoted for container physical examination which effectively was by far, the largest container examination bay in the country; stressing that the major problem associated with delays in the clearing process was the high rate of physical examination.'The current policy of 100 per cent examination of containers is incompatible with the drive to increase capacity and efficiency at the port', he stated further, and hinted that his company was considering investing an additional $65 million to increase capacity at the terminal by 40 per cent over the next 18 months, even though its concern of the present policy of 100 per cent cargo examination remained high.
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