APM Terminals Apapa has encouraged importers, exporters and freight forwarders to explore the standard gauge rail line for the movement of their cargo.
The terminal operator embarked on an awareness campaign on the standard gauge rail line with a rail trip from Ebute Metta rail station, Lagos, ending at the Moniya Freight Yard, Ibadan, Oyo state for its customers.
Last year, the terminal began the evacuation of cargo via the standard gauge rail line from the Lagos Port Complex Apapa to Moniya Freight Yard in Ibadan, to boost the handling of exports and imports.
Speaking on the trip, the APM Terminals Nigeria Inland Sales Manager, David Abbey, underscored the significant opportunities the standard gauge rail offers to the economy and customers in facilitating trade.
He said the terminals’ vision of improving life for all by integrating the world is one of the many reasons this product was created to give. the customers have the option of rail, road and barging of containers out of the terminal in Apapa.
Abbey explained that the standard gauge rail line guarantees safety, and faster turnaround time for cargo exchange, and creates reliability, predictability and ease of doing business for the terminal’s valued customers.
He said this is in addition to creating a one-stop shop for import, storage and export consolidation through container freight station (CFS) operations at the rail terminal in Moniya, Ibadan.
On his part, the Market and Commercial Intelligence Manager for APM Terminals Nigeria, Adetunji Igbaugba, encouraged importers and exporters to use the standard gauge rail line for fast delivery of their containers to and from Ibadan.
He said the Moniya Freight Yard has 8,000 square metres of land and a warehouse measuring about 4,000 square metres, which can be used for stuffing and unstuffing boxes.
“We do a lot of exports in Moniya. However, we need to continue to improve on the processes to ensure that we surpass our customers’ expectations like scheduling and reliability. We will continue to partner with the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) and other stakeholders to bring the needed efficiency for the customers to have a better trust in the product and service,” he said.
The Executive Director, Bueno Logistics Limited, Jedson Nwankwo said the Moniya Freight Yard, consisting of two terminals (A and B), is well positioned to handle many containers. He explained that the freight yard has two terminals – Terminal A operated by Diamond Star and Terminal B operated by Bueno Logistics.
Also speaking, the Managing Director of Primlaks Logistics, Bhagu Vasnani, expressed appreciation to APM Terminals for the rail trip and assured of cooperation to optimise the use of the standard gauge rail line and the Moniya Freight Yard.
