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
Editor's Choice
Nigeria’s Port Boom Is Outpacing Its Capacity, Dantsoho Tells World Ports Conference
Nigeria’s Port Boom Is Outpacing Its Capacity, Dantsoho Tells World Ports Conference
Dantsoho Pitches Nigeria’s Ports to Global Investors in London, Says Lekki’s Capacity Is Exhausted
By Emamuzou Akatugba | Waterways News | London
The Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Dr Abubakar Dantsoho, has told global port investors that Nigeria’s fast-growing cargo volumes make the country’s ports one of Africa’s most compelling investment opportunities. He said the Tinubu administration has put investor-friendly policies in place.
Dantsoho spoke on Tuesday at the IAPH World Ports Conference in London, which runs from November 3 to 6 at Olympia. He addressed a select group of maritime investors. He is Vice-President of the International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH) and Chairman of the Port Management Association of West and Central Africa (PMAWCA).
He said Nigeria’s population, rapid urbanisation and infrastructure gaps are what make the opportunity attractive. He argued that governments across Africa cannot alone fund bigger and deeper seaports, so private investment must move in quickly.
“The investment needed in ports to meet this expansion and growth can only happen if the requisite private investment is attracted and retained,” he said. He added that President Tinubu “has created the enabling atmosphere” for this
Dantsoho said Nigeria’s population has grown from about 45 million at independence in 1960 to over 260 million. In his words, the country needs capacity to receive bigger import vessels and to move higher export volumes.
His strongest example was the Lekki Deep Sea Port. It was funded with Chinese backing and built by China Harbour at a cost of $1.6 billion. He said it was commissioned only about three years ago, yet its capacity “has been exhausted”.
“Clearly, we need more capacity to be able to contain the volumes,” he said. He added that the NPA is pleased to be capturing more cargo, since rising volumes are what lift port revenue.
He also said most cargo arriving in West Africa, largely from China, ends up in the Nigerian market. He compared Nigeria’s population with Ghana (34 million), Côte d’Ivoire (32 million), Benin Republic (14 million) and Togo (9 million).
Other reports from the conference quote Dantsoho saying federal reforms have lifted Nigeria’s exports by about 25 per cent in two years, across oil and non-oil goods. He reportedly also cited two Nigerian ports in the World Bank’s top 20 global rankings, and a Single Window system the NPA developed in 2025 with a Singaporean firm.
NIGERIA WATCH
Capacity is now the story. A $1.6bn flagship port that is already full is the clearest sign yet that Nigeria’s problem has moved from attracting ships to handling them. It strengthens the case for the new deep seaport approvals (Badagry, Olokola, Ibom, Bakassi and Bonny) that have so far been announced faster than they have been built. Investors in London will want timelines, not just approvals.
Retaining investors is harder than attracting them. Dantsoho himself used the phrase “attracted and retained”. Concession renewal anxieties, regulatory overlap among agencies, and the Strait of Hormuz crisis’s effect on freight rates and war-risk insurance all weigh on retention. These are the questions investors will ask after the speech.
Where do the small operators fit? The pitch is about big terminals and big capital. Informal inland waterway operators, represented by WABOTAN and ATBOWATON, remain absent from the conversation.
Waterways News will keep asking how port-led growth and the NPA’s assessment of inland dry ports will translate into jetties, safety and livelihoods for the informal inland waterway operators.
Nigeria Unveils Home-Built ADX-Barra 200 Autonomous Vessel at AFRIDEX 2026
Arridex, DICON joint venture Helagon delivers country’s first indigenously developed unmanned surface vessels%
By Ighoyota Onaibre | Waterways News
Nigeria has unveiled its first indigenously developed autonomous surface vessel, the ADX-Barra 200. Arridex Group, formerly RusselSmith Group, built it through Helagon, its defence joint venture with the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON).
The vessel was unveiled on 26 October at the inaugural Africa International Defence Exhibition (AFRIDEX 2026) at Eko Atlantic, Lagos. The exhibition ran from 26 to 29 October.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was represented by Senate President Godswill Akpabio. He said the administration prioritises defence industry growth because a nation is more secure when it can build and maintain its own capability. He described the vessel as that capability taking shape, designed and built by local engineers in partnership with DICON, and said it deserves government support and the confidence of the armed forces.
ADX-Barra 200
Arridex Group CEO Kayode Adeleke presented the vessel. He said Helagon was set up to design autonomous systems and that the ADX-Barra 200 is the result. For the forces that will use it, he called it a force multiplier.
The ADX-Barra 200 is one of two platforms in the ADX-Barra series launched at the exhibition. The other is the ADX-Barra 100. Arridex says both were designed, built and integrated in Nigeria by its engineers.
Adeleke tied the platforms to Gulf of Guinea security. He said the region’s waters carry its trade, support its coastal communities and hold much of its energy wealth, and that protecting them calls for capability the region can build, sustain and improve itself. He invited the armed services and other stakeholders to arrange demonstrations and to help shape later generations of the vessels.
Others at the unveiling included Lagos State Deputy Governor Dr Obafemi Hamzat and the Minister of State for Defence, Dr Bello Matawalle. DICON Director-General Major General Babatunde Ibrahim Alaya, Helagon Chief Operating Officer Engr. Precious Omo-Agege and Arridex senior management were also present.
Arridex has not published the vessel’s technical specifications, including its length, endurance, payload and sensors. Both vessels remained on display at the exhibition.
NIGERIA WATCH
A home-built answer to a long-standing maritime problem: Nigeria’s waters have long needed more patrol capacity than its platforms and budgets can supply. A locally designed vessel that “can be supported, adapted and improved by the team that made it,” as Arridex puts it, addresses one persistent weakness. Imported hulls and systems often sit idle for want of spares, support and trained hands.
The questions that matter next: Unveilings are not deployments. The Navy, NIMASA’s Deep Blue Project and other agencies will want to know the vessel’s range, endurance, sensors and sea-state limits. They will also want to know whether it can work in the Gulf of Guinea. Until Arridex publishes specifications and arranges trials, the “game-changing” claim remains the company’s own.
Beyond defence: Waterways News readers should watch whether this technology filters into civil uses such as inland waterway surveillance, anti-vandalism patrols and search and rescue. The country’s inland operators, including those represented by WABOTAN and ATBOWATON, face insecurity and safety gaps that policy announcements have not closed. Local manufacturing capacity matters to them only if it eventually reaches the waterways where they work.
The accountability test: The industrial-policy argument is sound. It is build locally and maintain locally. It will be judged by procurement, deployment and sustained operation, not by launch-day speeches.
Editor's Choice
Australia Bars Repeat-Offender Bulk Carrier for 90 Days Over Falsified Crew Rest Records
Australia Bars Repeat-Offender Bulk Carrier for 90 Days Over Falsified Crew Rest Records
By Okeoghene Onoriobe | Waterways News
Australian maritime authorities have banned the Marshall Islands-flagged bulk carrier Wooyang Venus from its ports and waters for 90 days. Inspectors found that the ship’s crew work and rest-hour records had been deliberately falsified to hide excessive working hours.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) boarded the vessel at the Port of Newcastle on 29 October after a complaint under the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC). Its port state control inspection found that the records did not match the hours the crew actually worked. The ship left Newcastle on 31 October for Korea, and the ban took effect afterwards.
This is the vessel’s third brush with Australian enforcement in under three years. AMSA detained it in August 2026 when crew hours were neither properly recorded nor monitored. It was first detained in December 2023, after a complaint from the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF).
That inspection found falsified hours records, poor food provisions and an allegation that the master had assaulted a crew member. AMSA’s annual MLC report says the operator then submitted a corrective action plan covering repatriation, better provisions and training on rest-hour compliance. The latest findings suggest those measures did not take hold.
AMSA Executive Director for Maritime Safety and Environmental Compliance, Greg Witherall, said falsifying records meant to protect seafarers undermines both crew welfare and ship safety. He warned that fatigue dulls judgement and slows reaction times, raising the risk of collisions, groundings and injuries, particularly during navigation and watchkeeping.
The ban was imposed under Section 246 of Australia’s Navigation Act 2012. AMSA cited the deliberate falsification, the repeated breaches and doubts over the effectiveness of the owner’s and operator’s safety management systems.
Nigeria Watch
The case matters for Nigeria for three reasons:
Records are the enforcement tool. Fatigue rules only work if rest-hour logs can be trusted. Australia treated falsification as a safety-system failure, not a paperwork lapse, and banned the ship rather than detaining it again.
Repeat offenders need escalating penalties. Two detentions and a corrective plan did not change this operator’s behaviour. Nigerian port state control should ask whether its own follow-up on repeat deficiencies has real consequences.
Seafarer welfare is a Nigerian issue. Nigerian seafarers serve on foreign-flagged ships, and those working boats and ferries on domestic waters face fatigue and welfare gaps too, often with no records at all.
The MLC regime Australia is enforcing shows what accountability looks like. It is the benchmark NIMASA and the inland regulators should be measured against, and one this publication will keep pressing.
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