The Onne Multipurpose Terminal has opened its doors for operations.
It commenced container operations at Onne Port, in Port-Harcourt thereby doubling Eastern Nigeria’s modern container handling capacity and providing to the region’s economic growth, the company said in a statement.
The statement said, “MSC Floriana, a vessel belonging to the world’s biggest shipping line, Mediterranean Shipping Company berthed at OMT located at Berths 9-11 at Federal Ocean Terminal, Onne Port.
“OMT offloaded 1297 containers. MSC Floriana’s call marked the culmination of more than one year of preparations and investments by OMT.”
Head of Operations, OMT, Robert Uljan, said, “We are all very proud of the successful operation of the vessel. Our advanced cargo handling systems worked well and our operations and technical teams, all recruited from Rivers State, hit the ground running and performed very successfully.
“We are very confident we can build on this achievement and progressively ramp up performance over the quay and landside to the benefit of all of our customers, shipping lines and cargo owners.”
OMT is a subsidiary of the global port operator, International Container Terminal Services Inc.
The company stated that the location of OMT was ideally placed to serve shipping lines and Nigeria’s importers and exporters.
It said that the company was backed by a financially strong investor and that it had a state-of-the-art facility with 750 meters of deep-water quay, 22 hectares of yard area, two of the biggest mobile harbour cranes in Nigeria, ample yard equipment and the latest IT systems powering operations and planning.
“In fact, OMT will be one of the first terminals worldwide implementing a cloud-based terminal operating system,” It added.
Enrique K. Razon, Chairman and President, ICTSI, commenting on OMT’s debut said, “These are just the first steps. We are bullish on the long-term prospects for the Nigerian economy and we are ready to invest significant funds in OMT.
“To-date, ICTSI has invested $35m in state-of-the-art equipment, IT systems and personnel training. The next step will be major infrastructure works as well as investments in additional and bigger equipment totalling $100m.
“We will progressively align OMT’s facilities and service capacity to the needs of the diverse customer base the terminal is intended to serve.”
The company said to spur Onne’s growth as a major multipurpose port, OMT planned to invest in further container handling equipment, IT, oil and gas and other general cargo handling equipment, warehouses, workshops, better access roads and modern health and safety facilities and processes.
– Bloomberg