Shipowners spend $30m annually on drydocking in Africa

Findings by The PUNCH have revealed that Nigerian shipowners spend between $25m and $25m-$30m every year on dry docking vessels within West African countries.

The President of the Nigerian Indigenous Shipowners Association, Mr. Sola Adewunmi, disclosed this in a chat with The PUNCH on Saturday.

The term dry docking refers to a regular process that is used for the maintenance and repair of vessels. In much the same way as a car is regularly taken to the garage to be serviced, a ship is dry-docked in an area called a ‘lock’.

Nigeria currently has an idle N50bn modular floating dock acquired by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency a few years ago.

Meanwhile, in a recent report, NIMASA was quoted to have said that there are about 1,102 cabotage (local vessels) vessels in Nigeria; this excludes foreign vessels that call at Nigerian ports that may need dry docking.

Adewunmi explained that an average shipowner spent a minimum of about $2m every year to dry dock, depending on the size of the vessel and the kind of work to be done.

“I can conservatively tell you that Nigerians will not spend less than $25m to $30m on docking a vessel every year in neighbouring West African countries. I can remember over five years ago I docked a 20,000-tonne vessel, and I spent over $750 000,” Adewunmi said.

He maintained that this cost depends heavily on the size of the vessel, the nature of work done on the vessels, and how long the vessels stayed in the dockyard.

“Yes, it depends on the kind of maintenance you are doing.

If it’s an annual or periodic. If it’s periodic, there are some things you have to check every five years. Whether something is wrong with it or not, the classification society requires you to open all those things and check that everything is okay. That’s what we call a periodic survey. Then there is one that we call an annual survey; it’s just like you taking your car to a mechanic to ensure that everything is working fine,” he said.

Adewunmi lamented that the government is not doing anything to salvage the situation, adding that the creation of the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy has not made the situation better.

“People go to neighbouring countries to dock their vessels. I can tell you that in the last two years, nothing has happened; the government has not done anything. Your hope was what? I said when the government came in, I said our hope was erased. Okay. By creating a Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, we all believed that they would give attention to shipowners and the maritime industry would thrive. But nothing has happened in the last two years,” he lamented.

The President of the Nigerian Chamber of Shipping, Aminu Umar, opined Nigerian shipowners spent an average of $1.5m-$2m every two and a half years on ship repairs in neighbouring West African countries.

Umar explained that Nigerian shipowners are forced to use facilities within the West African region due to port facilities in the country.

Speaking further, Umar explained that a lot of Nigerian vessels queue within these neighbouring countries to get the services they deserve.

“Shipowners are using mostly the dry docks within West Africa; from Ghana and Senegal up to Namibia, we use any available spots. Some shipowners operating bigger vessels have been using Nigerdock, while others go to Senegal, which takes the bigger size. On average, the budget for the dry dock per vessel is nothing less than $1.5m to $2m, and it’s done every two and a half years,” Umar said.

“About 552 vessels go for dry docking every two and a half years. So, on average, you should say, like, every year, there is no way about 150 to 200 vessels won’t be going for dry dock,” he said.

He urged the Federal Government to build standard dockyards so that these vessels would be making use of the facilities in Nigeria.

“We have to build it because we are the country with the largest number of vessels in terms of our registry when compared to any other country in West Africa. Secondly, we are, we have the largest inflow of vessels coming in to deliver cargoes as well as taking cargoes, compared to any other country in West Africa, on the Atlantic side of Africa. So, it’s not only about Nigerian ships registered but also foreign ships that have come here to deliver cargo or to take cargo that can also utilise the dry dock,” he said.

Umar stated that the sector is a very big one that needs more people to come in and invest.

“The truth is that it’s a huge investment. So, it’s an investment that needs a lot of, you know, people – not only us. So, it’s a huge investment that needed a lot of people to do an investment. The government to create an environment to give supportive capital so that people and investors can come into it. There are a lot of things that could support the dry dock, actually,” he said.

He lamented that the high port charges are making the ports less competitive, thereby driving cargoes out of the ports to neighbouring countries.

“Recently, there’s a 15 per cent increase on the shipping dues, which is, again, increasing our port cost. And that will only make it very tough for people; cargoes are being moved somewhere else,” he said.

Also speaking, a shipowner, Ayorinde Adedoyin, admitted that one may likely spend that amount dry-docking a vessel depending on the size of the vessel.

He lamented that most times, at the end of the exercise, some components of the vessel would go missing.

“It depends on the size. You know, dry docking is not just based on the vessel. It’s based on the size of the vessel that you want to dry dock. The last time I did it, it cost me about $600,000, $1m in Cameroon. You will realise that some of your equipment will be missing from the vessel. You may spend that amount because you need to look at it before you sail it to the destination. You know, cost of fuelling, cost of crewing, and your crew is on the vessel,” he said.

He also emphasised that the cost will depend on the type of work to be done on the vessel.

“It depends on the size of the vessel that the owner has and the job that they want to do. In some cases, you know, maybe they change the propeller. There are so many things, so it depends on the problem,” he said.