In the News:
On the frontlines of dredging techniques: Sand Winning from a Private Lake.
The activities of a newly formed dredging company in Lagos are opening the frontiers of dredging in the Nigerian industry today. Innovative Dredging & Contracting (IDC) hit the Nigerian dredging sector with a new 14-inch dredger in 2008 and for its first contract is reclaiming the swamps of a proposed development in the Lekki peninsular of Lagos Nigeria. In total, about two million cubic metres of sand is required to reclaim the entire land area of 203 hectares. The ingenuity of the project stems from the fact that all that sand has to come from two lakes to be created in the client’s land area. Read More...
Collapse of Nigerian Shipping Lines: What Loss! What Remedies?
The fortunes of Nigerian sea trade today are hanging in the balance: a balance crafted knowing or unknowingly by the former administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo coupled with the weak management structures of the operators. The announcement suspending cargo support for Nigerian shipping lines took a few minutes in one day but the ill effects of that singular measure sounded the death knell of the indigenous maritime industry and has, so far, shut the doors of many companies and sent countless workers home due to lack of business. Some have been sent to their early graves...Read More
Local Port News and Foreign Maritime Headlines
NPA Unveils 25-year Port Development Masterplan.
The managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority, (NPA) Malam Abdul Salam Mohammed, has unveiled a 25-year port development masterplan as the “surest permanent solution to solving port congestion”. The NPA had recently advertised advertised for expression of interest for the provision of consultancy services for the development of a national Port Master Plan, to which 18 bids from 15 companies, including Royal Haskoning of Netherlands, CARES Consultant of UK and CPCS Company of Canada. More...
Sequel to mounting congestion: NPA woos ships to eastern ports
The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) is wooing RoRo and container ships which are now caught up in the heavy queue for berths at the Lagos seaports to discharge at the eastern ports and gain some concessions which were not however mentioned. Shipping companies interested in the concession package were directed to contact the NPA management for a discussion, though Mohammed was quoted as regretting NPA’s resort to this diversion option because of the legal and economic implications involved.. Read More
Picture Highlights of the PH Dredging and Mining Technical Workshop 2008.
AFRICAN PLANTS AND EQUIPMENT DIGEST:
Equipment dealership in Nigeria: Tidbits for Nigerian buyers and users.
What Kinds Of Equipment Fit The Nigerian User? Old, New, Fairly-Used, Conventional, Hi-Tech, Imported Or Home-Sourced?
...That business happens to be a centre of attraction for one of the most vibrant sectors in Nigeria’s socio-economy in this new millennium – equipment and machines for construction and civil engineering works....The slogan is “dividends of democracy” and they range from schools, to roads, hospitals, markets, rehabilitation of public infrastructure, etc. ... this is a huge market economy that drives the demand for real estate, mainly for living quarters and offices and for shopping malls. Down in the Niger Delta, the demand for plants and equipment is not divorced from the effects of the same root problem - decadence in governance. Read More...
ENERGY:
Nigerian Oil and Gas Mining Report
N’Delta: Soldiers Killed 90 Persons – Maritime Workers
The Bayelsa State branch of the Maritime Workers Union (MWU) said in January that rampaging soldiers of the Joint (Military) Task Force (JTF) on the Niger Delta killed over 90 persons and destroyed over 300 boats along the creeks and rivers of Bayelsa State in 2008 and called for the payment of compensation to affected families. Read More...
INTERNATIONAL DREDGING BRIEFS
Boskalis now holds 20% of Smit
THE DUTCH dredging group Koninklijke Boskalis Westminster has raised its holding in Smit International, the listed Dutch towage company, to 20%, it reported last October to the Dutch financial markets’ regulator AFM....Read More
Ellicott Sells 100 Dredgers in 2008.
Ellicott Dredges of Baltimore USA has reported selling nearly 100 dredgers in more than 20 countries in 2008. In a press release emailed to DDH, the company attributed the sales to both Ellicott Dredges and its sister companies, Mud Cat™, IMS dredges, and Liquid Waste Technology (LWT) and claimed that its new plant in Wisconsin near Minneapolis (now in full production), is now the largest and most modern cutter dredge manufacturing facility in the world...Read More
NIGERIAN DREDGING & TRANSPORTATION DIGEST
FG may concession Lagos-Ibadan Expressway
...The plan if successful will signal a shift in government’s preferred financing plan for infrastructure upgrades and repairs in the country following what former Transportation Minister, Mrs Diezani Maduekwe noted last year that, “We have had to come out with the privatisation of roads due to lack of funds. We don’t have infinite funds. We have to privatise very carefully our major access roads, trunk A roads, around the country.” ...Read More...
FG to concession 17 roads, bridges
The Federal Government plans to concession the reconstruction, rehabilitation and maintenance of a new Lagos-Abuja road, the Second Niger Bridge and 15 other major roads and bridges to private firms. According to some media reports, the proposed Lagos-Abuja road, which is expected to cater for an average daily traffic of 25,000 motorists, has a length of 500 kilometres, while the Second Niger Bridge has six-lanes, three on each way will stretch 1.78 kilometres with an average traffic of 12,000 vehicles daily. Read More
