Five practical ways to cut demurrage at Apapa

Every importer who has brought cargo through Apapa or Tin Can Island knows the sinking feeling: the vessel has berthed, but the boxes are not moving, and the clock on demurrage and storage charges has started ticking. What begins as a small daily fee compounds quickly into a cost that can erase the margin on an entire shipment.

Start before the vessel arrives

The single biggest lever you have is time. We advise clients to treat the two weeks before berthing as the critical window: confirm your Form M and PAAR are in order, pre-alert your clearing agent with complete shipping documents, and resolve any discrepancies in the bill of lading before the ship is in the anchorage.

When documents arrive late or incomplete, your agent cannot begin examination booking or duty assessment, and every day lost at this stage is a day of terminal storage you will pay for.

Common causes of delay we see at Lagos ports

Across hundreds of clearances, a few patterns account for most of the avoidable demurrage our clients once paid:

• PAAR queries raised on valuations that could have been defended with proper pro forma documentation
• Container examination appointments not booked early enough after discharge
• Terminal and shipping line payments made late because of slow internal approvals
• No pre-arranged truckage, leaving cleared boxes waiting days for evacuation

What disciplined clearing looks like

With in-house licensed brokers and our own fleet, our typical Apapa clearance runs on a simple rhythm: documents verified pre-arrival, duty assessment initiated within 24 hours of berthing, examination booked at the earliest slot, and trucks staged before the box is released. That discipline is what turns a two-week port stay into a three-to-five day turnaround.

Demurrage is not a cost of doing business in Nigeria — it is a cost of doing business without a plan. If your boxes are sitting longer than they should, talk to us.