GAC Shipping To Forefeit N22.2 Million Demurrage Charges

By Kenneth Jukpor

Following the swift intervention of Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), GAC Shipping Nigeria Limited has agreed to slash 60% of its charges for demurrage on JOF Nigeria Limited – a logistics company said to be clearing goods for Nestle.

Recall that Shippers’ Council sealed the premises of GAC Shipping for about three hours last month, over alleged seizure of 50 containers of raw materials for production belonging to Nestle Nigeria Limited.

The shipping company has reached Shippers’ Council with an improved offer to slash N22.2million (60%) of the N37million outstanding demurrage the company had demanded JOF Nigeria to pay before the 50 containers would be released.

MMS Plus gathered that Shippers’ Council told the shipping company to put its request in a formal application on Friday, last week.

JOF Nigeria Limited – a logistics company said to be clearing goods for Nestle had written a petition to Shippers’ Council over GAC’s claim, complaining that GAC refused to release its containers since the goods arrived the country since March 7, 2018.

GAC claimed JOF Nigeria Limited failed to return the empty containers on time, insisting that an outstanding demurrage of N37 million must be paid before the 50 containers would be released, with fresh N19 million new charges on the containers which was calculated on the basis of N1.8 million daily since the containers arrived.

However, Shippers’ Council maintained that the shipping line erred by seizing the 50 containers of raw materials as this would impact negatively on the production schedule of Nestle.

The Council noted that since JOF was an established customer of the shipping line and given the excuse for returning the empty containers late, GAC didn’t have to seize its containers.

This development can be seen as a massive success in the enforcement activities of Shippers’ Council which was likened to a dog that never barked, in the past.