Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), the world's largest container shipping line, has won a 45-year concession to develop a new container terminal at Snake Island Port in Lagos.
The Geneva-based group said it has signed a concession agreement with Nigerdock, operator of the Snake Island Port, and also finalized an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract with Chagouri Group-owned ITB Nigeria Limited and Belgium's DEME Group for the construction of the facility. This investment will bring MSC's total spending in Nigeria to more than $1 billion.
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The project will establish a large container terminal within the Snake Island Port designed to handle both deep sea vessels and barges. Plans show a 910-metre quay equipped with ship-to-shore cranes and mobile harbor cranes, while the terminal yard will initially cover approximately 30 hectares, with scope for further expansion as traffic increases.
MSC said the port would start with a dredging depth of about 16.5 metres, which would match the existing navigation channel in Lagos, but the design allows for the terminal to be deepened to 18 meters in the future to accommodate larger container ships.
Plans to expand the Snake Island Port were first announced in June 2023 when Nigerdock received federal government approval through a public-private partnership (PPP). The shipyard reported an estimated $1 billion of private sector investment with an additional $850 million in reinvestment. By 2024, Nigerdock and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) finalized an agreement for a new facility on an 85-hectare site within the Snake Island Integrated Free Zone to facilitate a multi-purpose port with three terminals.
MSC is the first investor. MSC Group Chairman Diego Aponte said the project will “help provide excellent service to customers in Nigeria and across Africa, create many local jobs and significantly increase economic revenues and resilience.”
NigerDoc estimated that the development would contribute more than $5.2 billion in federal government revenues over a 45-year period.
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MSC currently provides freight services at the Apapa and Tin Can Island ports in Lagos, where capacity constraints are significant, and the Onye Port in Rivers State. According to its website, MSC Nigeria moves over 200,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) per year.
