Editor's Choice
CRISIS AT TIN CAN: How MSC’s Mounting Empty Containers Are Choking Nigeria’s Busiest Port
CRISIS AT TIN CAN: How MSC’s Mounting Empty Containers Are Choking Nigeria’s Busiest Port
Truck drivers shun MSC boxes as haulage costs skyrocket to N1.5m per trip; ANLCA demands vessel deployment while NPA security officials allegedly exploit the chaos for illegal levies; tariff battle simmers in the background
By Oghenewoke Osaweren | Waterways News, Lagos
A deepening operational crisis is unfolding at the Tin Can Island Port in Lagos as the mass accumulation of uncollected empty containers belonging to the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) — the world’s largest container shipping line — continues to overwhelm terminal capacity, throttle cargo movement and inflict severe financial pain on freight stakeholders across Nigeria’s most active port corridor.
Waterways.ng can report that the situation, which industry insiders describe as systemic and long-festering, has now reached a critical inflection point, with multiple terminals refusing to accept MSC empty containers, haulage prices surging to record levels, and truck operators openly boycotting MSC boxes to protect their businesses.
TERMINALS SLAM THE GATE SHUT
The Tin Can Island Container Terminal (TICT), Ports and Cargo Handling Services Terminal, and Five Star Logistics Terminal have all stopped accepting empty MSC containers, citing acute shortage of yard space. The move is a direct response to a persistent surplus of MSC empties that has accumulated over months — a consequence, stakeholders say, of a fundamental imbalance in the shipping line’s vessel operations at Nigerian ports.
According to the National Publicity Secretary of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Mr. Emmanuel Onyeme, the root of the problem lies in MSC’s habitual practice of arriving at Tin Can with approximately 1,000 containers per vessel call but departing with only around 500 — leaving a structural deficit of empties at every port call with no viable evacuation plan in place.
“MSC Shipping vessels come to Nigerian ports with 1,000 containers and leave with only 500, leaving a deficit on the port. They are making Nigeria a dumping ground,” Onyeme added.
He said the consequence is now visible and visceral: yards overflowing with idle MSC boxes, export cargoes loaded in MSC containers stranded inside port premises, and a haulage ecosystem increasingly unwilling to touch anything bearing the MSC name.
HAULAGE COSTS EXPLODE AS DRIVERS STAGE QUIET BOYCOTT
The financial fallout for licensed customs agents has been severe. Moving an MSC container from TICT or Five Star Logistics Terminal to a warehouse within the Tin Can Port complex now attracts a charge of N500,000, while a trip to Ikeja — previously a routine haul — now commands N1.5 million.
“This week has been hectic. To move a container of vehicle from TICT Terminal or Five Star Logistics Terminal to a warehouse in Tin Can is N500,000. After this, it takes you two weeks to return the empty container. Daily you are being charged on the empty container,” Onyeme said.
The compounding effect is particularly punishing for customs agents who hold valid Terminal Delivery Orders (TDOs) but cannot execute them because truck drivers are actively avoiding MSC containers. The combination of high haulage fees, prolonged truck turnaround times and ongoing demurrage charges — which ANLCA says exceed N100,000 per day on unreturned MSC empty boxes — means that loading an MSC container now carries near-certain financial loss.
The National Secretary of the Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO), Comrade Muhammed Bala Sanni, confirmed the boycott, saying his members had taken a collective decision to steer clear of MSC containers until the shipping line deploys vessels to clear the backlog.
“If you load MSC containers, you would lose revenue. MSC Shipping is not deploying ships to receive their empty containers. All the terminals are telling us there is no space. Nobody is willing to take the risk of loading an MSC container — at the end of the day, you would lose revenue and also lose your client,” Sanni said.
He noted that trucks are lining the access roads and holding bays of affected terminals at full capacity, worsening congestion across the port corridor stretching from Mile 2 to Tin Can Island.
THE GHOST OF MEDLOG: A HOLDING BAY THAT EXISTS ONLY ON PAPER
Central to the crisis is what stakeholders describe as MSC’s failure to provide a functional holding bay for its empty containers in Nigeria. While MSC has pointed to its logistics arm, MEDLOG, as the designated depot for returning empties, both licensed customs agents and truck operators say no such facility has materialised in practice.
“MSC Shipping would tell you they have MEDLOG as their holding bay, but we have not seen anywhere to drop their containers,” Onyeme said.
The absence of a working depot has, in effect, forced the port’s terminal yards and Nigeria’s truck fleet to serve as MSC’s de facto container storage infrastructure — without compensation. AMATO’s Sanni was blunt: “The shipping companies are not ready to pay us for using our trucks as a holding bay.”
Onyeme’s demand was unambiguous: MSC must immediately deploy a minimum of five vessels to Tin Can Port specifically to evacuate the backlog, and the shipping line must establish a verifiable, functional holding bay or face escalating institutional resistance.
ALLEGED EXTORTION AT THE GATE
The congestion has reportedly spawned a secondary crisis: the alleged exploitation of the situation by security personnel of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) at the second gate of Tin Can Island Port. Onyeme alleged that NPA security officials have been chaining trucks attempting to drop MSC empty containers and demanding N50,000 per truck for their release.
“NPA security personnel are now taking advantage of the situation and chaining trucks who come to drop MSC empty containers. They are collecting N50,000. For any transporter to load or drop an MSC container, he has to pay N50,000 — meanwhile MSC Shipping is also charging demurrage daily for the container not dropped,” he alleged.
If the allegations hold, truck operators are being squeezed from two directions simultaneously: extorted by port security for attempting to return containers, and simultaneously penalised by MSC in daily demurrage charges for not returning them. Stakeholders say the situation demands urgent regulatory intervention.
Waterways.ng contacted the NPA for reaction to these allegations but had not received a response at the time of publication. MSC Nigeria was also contacted but did not respond before deadline.
ANLCA FIRES FORMAL LETTER TO SHIPPERS’ COUNCIL
In a sign that informal complaints have escalated into official channels, the Secretary of ANLCA’s Tin Can Island chapter, Mr. Franky Paul Nwegbe, confirmed that the association has drafted a formal letter to the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) on the matter.
“The letter is going out on Monday to the Nigerian Shippers’ Council. MSC is not taking export containers. This is leading to a hike in transportation and congestion at the port,” Nwegbe added.
The move carries weight. The NSC demonstrated its regulatory muscle in March 2026, when it formally directed MSC to suspend a unilateral tariff increase — a directive the shipping line ultimately complied with, reverting to its previous tariff regime pending broader stakeholder consultations. Industry observers say the ANLCA letter could reignite that regulatory tension if the Council takes up the empty container issue with equal resolve.
NO INVESTMENT, NO JUSTIFICATION — ANLCA ON TARIFF HIKE
The empty container crisis has also reinflamed the ongoing debate about MSC’s proposed tariff increases. Onyeme mounted a forceful economic argument against any hike, contending that MSC has failed to demonstrate the operational investment or value addition that could justify higher charges.
“MSC Shipping is not adding any value to this country. It is the terminal operator that handles and loads containers. Shipping companies don’t have any equipment, no operational vehicles, they don’t contribute or invest in our ports, they add no value. They are supposed to have holding bays but they don’t — and that is why we insist they cannot increase charges,” he said.
The position mirrors the broader industry coalition that forced the NSC’s intervention in March 2026. The regulator’s April 2026 stakeholders forum on the tariff question ended inconclusively, with the NSC insisting no increase would take effect without comprehensive stakeholder engagement — a process still unresolved.
A STRUCTURAL PROBLEM WITHOUT A STRUCTURAL FIX
The MSC empty container crisis at Tin Can is not an isolated incident. Nigeria’s port infrastructure has long grappled with a chronic imbalance between import and export container traffic. Industry data shows that empty containers accounted for approximately 80 per cent of outbound traffic from Nigerian ports in 2023 — a ratio that reflects the country’s import-heavy trade profile and the limited competitiveness of Nigerian exports in containerised formats.
The result is an environment structurally prone to exactly the kind of accumulation crisis now playing out at Tin Can. Until Nigeria’s export capacity meaningfully closes the gap with its import volumes — or until shipping lines are held to firmer regulatory standards on container evacuation — the empty box problem will continue to recur.
As of the time of this report, no terminal at Tin Can Island Port had reversed its refusal to accept MSC empty containers, no evacuation vessel had been announced by MSC, and AMATO’s informal boycott of MSC boxes remained in effect. The ANLCA formal letter to the Nigerian Shippers’ Council was expected to be delivered on Monday.
KEY FIGURES
- N500,000 — Haulage cost from TICT/Five Star to Tin Can warehouse
- N1,500,000 — Haulage cost from Tin Can to Ikeja
- N100,000 — MSC’s daily demurrage on unreturned empty containers
- N50,000 — Alleged NPA gate levy per truck dropping MSC empties
- 500 — Estimated net empty containers surplus per MSC vessel call
Two More Tankers Struck in Strait of Hormuz as Attack Count Hits Five in a Week
By Okeoghene Onoriobe | Waterways News
Two more tankers have been hit while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, leaving two seafarers with minor injuries and pushing the number of reported attacks or security incidents against commercial vessels in the waterway to at least five since 16 September.
The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) centre said an inbound tanker was struck by an unidentified projectile on Monday. Two crew members sustained minor injuries, but the vessel stayed under its own power and continued to its next port, with no environmental impact reported.
Hours later, UKMTO issued a second alert after an outbound LPG tanker reported being struck by debris from unknown projectiles. All crew were reported safe and the vessel also continued its voyage. Authorities are investigating both incidents, and UKMTO has not attributed either attack to a specific actor.
The two strikes build on a Joint Maritime Information Center (JMIC) advisory covering three earlier attacks between 16 and 18 September, one of which saw a tanker’s hull breached by a projectile, sparking a fire. JMIC continues to rate the threat level in the strait as “severe,” citing a high likelihood of deliberate hostile action and pointing to a pattern of harassment by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — drone overflights, surveillance of merchant vessels and VHF hailing, alongside the direct attacks.
Traffic through the chokepoint remains sharply depressed. Only 17 commodity vessels were visibly transiting over the weekend, down from 37 the week before and against a pre-war daily average of roughly 125. That figure excludes vessels sailing with their AIS transponders switched off, and JMIC notes a persistent gap between visible and actual traffic.
Nigeria Watch
For Nigerian maritime stakeholders, the Hormuz crisis is no longer a distant Gulf story. It is a cost line. Every fresh escalation feeds directly into the war-risk insurance premiums and freight rates that Nigerian importers, refiners and shipping agents ultimately absorb, since global tanker and container capacity pulled off the Hormuz route tightens supply elsewhere and pushes rates up across long-haul trades, including those serving West African ports.
The renewed attacks also sharpen the stakes around Nigeria’s push for a stronger voice at the IMO Council table and its broader blue-economy diplomacy under Minister Adegboyega Oyetola. A sustained Gulf disruption is exactly the kind of systemic shock that tests whether Nigeria’s seat translates into influence over how global shipping risk, insurance and rerouting decisions are made, rather than Nigeria simply absorbing the downstream cost.
Locally, the episode is a reminder of the layered nature of “maritime security” as a policy word: the Deep Blue Project and Gulf of Guinea security architecture address piracy and armed robbery close to home, but Nigeria’s ports and shippers remain exposed to security failures thousands of kilometres away in the Gulf.
Waterways News will continue tracking how the Hormuz situation feeds into freight cost pressure at Nigerian ports and NIMASA’s public messaging on the issue.
Blue Economy
Oyetola Confirms 7,059 Nigerian Seafarers Placed Onboard Vessels, Orders NIMASA to Fast-Track CVFF Disbursement
Oyetola Confirms 7,059 Nigerian Seafarers Placed Onboard Vessels, Orders NIMASA to Fast-Track CVFF Disbursement
By Ighoyota Onaibre | Waterways News
The Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Dr Adegboyega Oyetola, says 7,059 Nigerian seafarers have so far been placed onboard vessels to acquire seatime experience, part of what he described as the Federal Government’s broader push to build a competitive indigenous maritime workforce.
The Minister, in a statement issued through his Special Adviser, Dr Bolaji Akinola, at the weekend, also directed the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to work more closely with the 12 approved Primary Lending Institutions (PLIs) to accelerate disbursement of the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) to qualified Nigerian shipowners.
According to the statement, NIMASA has so far received 92 applications under the CVFF framework, of which 20 have been forwarded to the PLIs and one has been reviewed and cleared for approval. Oyetola said the ship acquisition initiative could generate more than 30,000 direct and indirect jobs across shipyards, marine engineering firms and maritime logistics companies, while deepening Nigeria’s domestic ship-owning and shipbuilding base.
The Minister linked the disbursement push to President Bola Tinubu’s authorisation to unlock financing long owed to domestic maritime operators, framing it as central to realising the economic potential of Nigeria’s blue economy.
On manpower development, Oyetola disclosed that 222 seafarers had been trained free of charge in basic and advanced professional courses, while 333 cadets completed academic training and were awarded degrees. Under the Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP), 135 cadets have completed the programme and obtained their Certificates of Competency (CoC).
He said the interventions reflect government’s commitment to strengthening indigenous maritime capacity so that Nigerians can benefit directly from opportunities created by the blue economy.
Nigeria Watch
The seafarer numbers are worth celebrating, but the more consequential line in Oyetola’s statement is the one about CVFF: 92 applications received, 20 forwarded to PLIs, and just one, only one is reviewed and cleared for approval. That ratio is the real story.
Waterways News has tracked the CVFF disbursement saga for years, and the pattern here is familiar: an announcement of “significant progress” that, on closer reading, describes a process still largely stuck at the application stage. Nigerian shipowners have waited over two decades for meaningful access to this fund, first established in 2003. A single approved application, even framed as forward momentum, does not yet amount to disbursement, and it is disbursement, not directives to NIMASA and the PLIs, that shipowners can take to the bank.
The seafarer placement and training figures are a genuine bright spot and speak to real capacity-building through NIMASA’s cadetship and NSDP schemes. But they sit somewhat apart from the CVFF question.
Training seafarers builds the workforce; it does not put Nigerian-owned vessels on the water for that workforce to crew. Until the CVFF pipeline moves from “20 applications forwarded” to actual funds reaching qualified shipowners, Nigeria’s ambition to grow an indigenous shipowning fleet — the same ambition the Minister invoked in citing 30,000 potential jobs — remains aspirational.
Waterways News will continue to press for concrete disbursement timelines and named beneficiaries under the CVFF, rather than accept process updates as a substitute for delivery.
Blue Economy
Navy, Fisheries Department Arrest 34 Suspects, Seize Three Vessels in Renewed War on Illegal Fishing
Navy, Fisheries Department Arrest 34 Suspects, Seize Three Vessels in Renewed War on Illegal Fishing
By Raymond Gold | Waterways News
The Federal Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture and the Nigerian Navy have struck a fresh blow against illegal fishing in Nigerian waters, seizing three vessels and arresting 34 suspects in a coordinated three-day sweep.
The operation, codenamed Operation Abo Eja 2026, was designed to tighten surveillance and enforcement against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, one of the most persistent threats to Nigeria’s marine resources and the livelihoods that depend on them.
Among those arrested were 24 Nigerians, three Ghanaians and three Chinese nationals, underlining the increasingly foreign and cross-border character of the illegal trawling networks operating off the country’s coast.
The Western Naval Command led the offshore muscle of the operation, deploying a naval ship, a helicopter and Special Boat Service personnel, while the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture supplied technical and regulatory backing to ensure the arrests translate into prosecutable enforcement action.
Deputy Director at the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Adeleke Adegoke, said the operation underscored the need for sharper intelligence gathering and better information sharing between agencies to make future raids more targeted and effective.
Flag Officer Commanding the Western Naval Command, Rear Admiral Abdullahi Mustapha, described the exercise as proof of effective inter-agency coordination, adding that it would strengthen ongoing efforts to safeguard Nigeria’s marine resources.
Nigeria Watch
Operation Abo Eja 2026 lands squarely inside a theme this desk has tracked for months: the steady erosion of Nigerian control over its own coastal waters. Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing is not a fringe nuisance — it is a direct assault on artisanal fishing communities and the small-scale operators who make up the bulk of Nigeria’s blue economy workforce, even as foreign trawlers, often flagged or crewed out of Asia, continue to test the limits of enforcement.
The presence of Chinese nationals among those arrested will not surprise close observers of Nigeria’s fisheries sector, where foreign-linked trawling operations have long been accused of over-exploiting stocks with little regard for licensing or seasonal restrictions. It also reinforces a broader pattern this publication has flagged repeatedly: foreign dominance of Nigerian coastal waters remains an unresolved policy failure, one that recurs regardless of which agency is nominally in charge.
The joint Navy-fisheries model deployed here — naval assets providing muscle, the fisheries department providing regulatory teeth — is also the same architecture underpinning the Deep Blue Project and broader Gulf of Guinea security efforts championed by the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy under Minister Adegboyega Oyetola. Deputy Director Adegoke’s call for better intelligence sharing is a familiar refrain in Nigerian maritime enforcement: the hardware and manpower for these operations increasingly exist, but the surveillance and prosecutorial follow-through that would deter repeat offenders has historically lagged.
For the informal and small-scale operators this desk covers closely, the real test will not be the headline arrest numbers but what happens next — whether the 34 suspects face meaningful prosecution, whether the three seized vessels are forfeited rather than quietly released, and whether Operation Abo Eja 2026 becomes a sustained enforcement posture rather than another one-off show of force.
Oil and Gas7 months agoTantita’s Pipeline Deal: $144m Contract, Rising Output, and the Questions that Deserve Answers
- MARITIME TRADE & SHIPPING7 months ago
World’s Largest Container Ship Sets New Maritime Record with 22,233 TEUs on Single Voyage
- Blue Economy7 months ago
Nigeria’s Coast Guard Bill: A Solution in Search of a Problem?
