PHOTOS: First trans-shipment vessel berths at Lekki Deep Seaport

The Lekki Deep Seaport management has announced the arrival of Rimbaud, the first transshipment vessel to berth at the terminal.

In a series of tweets on Friday, the management said the ship is operated by CMA CGM, a French shipping and logistics company.

Transshipment is when goods are transferred from one vessel to another at one location before being shipped to their destination.

The vessel was said to have sailed “all the way from the far East” to the port.

The management, in the tweets, said the vessel was berthed at approximately 1 pm on Thursday afternoon.

“Lekki Port is excited to announce the arrival of its first transshipment vessel, CMA CGM Rimbaud which has sailed all the way from the far East to Lekki Port,” the statement reads.

“The lady, CMA CGM Rimbaud has an LOA of 270m, a breadth of 42.8m, and 6,900 TEUs capacity.

“With marine services provided by the able men of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), the vessel was berthed at approximately 1 pm this afternoon.

“The Nigerian customs agency boarded the vessel and all paperwork was certified to be in order.

“The transshipment volume on the vessel is 411 TEUs and the eventual destination will be Cotonou on 6th July, 2023.

“Lekki Port is proud to actualise the objective of the Federal Ministry Of Transport, Nigeria, and the Nigerian Ports Authority to bring transshipment volumes to Nigeria and this is the first of many more transshipment vessels to berth at Lekki Port.”

The deep seaport was completed in 2022, with a promise from the state government that commercial operations would commence in 2023.

In January 2023, President Muhamnadu Buhari inaugurated the project in Lagos.

Here are photos of the vessel.