Mr. Pete Bottino, President, Auto Export Shipping (AES), a non-vessel operating common carrier, which handles shippers’ exports of vehicles including automobiles, trucks, and mobile industrial equipment via roll on/roll off vessel services from U.S. ports to various West Africa ports, has urged the federal government of Nigeria to take advantage of the decline in patronage currently being experienced by the Cotonou ports to grow its RoRo business.
Bottino, while speaking during a courtesy visit to SIFAX Group facilities in Lagos, noted that the Cotonou RoRo vehicle market, which was a booming market in the West Coast, has suffered a significant decline in patronage, a situation he described as a big opportunity for Nigeria to explore in order to grow its earnings.
He said: “As a highly-rated carrier in the United States, we used to export two large vessels to the Cotonou ports on a weekly basis, but I must tell you that this market has crashed now and we only manage to export a small fraction there now. At present, our company would prefer to ship cargoes to Nigerian ports rather than Cotonou ports. This is an opportunity that Nigeria and its government must key into, if they want to grow their earnings.”
In order to take advantage of this, Bottino urged the federal government to urgently address the challenge of foreign exchange that has negatively affected businesses in the country.
“Right now, because of the foreign exchange problems in Nigeria, the business is down. I believe once the government gets that sorted out, more customers will be bringing in lot more cars, especially trucks and machine equipment,” he said.
The AES boss also commended SIFAX Group for the genuine commitment displayed so far in building a solid business relationship with his company as shown in its business acumen, problem-solving skill and excellent customer service shown in the vehicle importation service.
AES and SIFAX Group are jointly revolutionising the RoRo industry in Nigeria with the one-stop shop service that includes port terminal services, stevedoring, ship agency and off-dock services.
“For the first time in our business relations in Nigeria, my team and I in the United States can feel and sense that people are trying their best to grow the RoRo vehicle industry in Nigeria and we feel highly confident with these gestures.”
“We have started conversations with the company from 2012 and we simply had no choice than to choose them because the company’s vision of growth, forward movement and becoming a dominant force in the Nigerian shipping industry is in tandem with AES vision. When you have a company whose vision is the same with yours, one has no choice than just to do business with them. I can assure all Nigerians and importers that the AES/SIFAX Group partnership is here to stay”, he said.
While responding, Mr. John Jenkins, Group Managing Director of SIFAX Group, thanked the AES boss for the visit, while assuring him and other stakeholders in the business, consignees, agents, among others of the company’s readiness to exceed expectations through provision of excellent service for which the company is noted for.
