Demurrage

Free time is agreed in the shipping contract and varies by line, by route and by negotiation. A common allowance is a number of free days from discharge, and volume shippers negotiate longer.

The clock does not care why you are late. Delays caused by documentation errors, Customs queries, port congestion, funding for duty payment, a strike or a public holiday all accrue charges in the same way.

That is why experienced importers work backwards from arrival. Documents prepared and matched before the vessel sails. Duty funded before arrival. A clearing agent instructed and briefed in advance. An empty return plan agreed.

Where charges have already accrued, they can sometimes be reduced. Lines have processes for waivers and concessions, particularly where the delay was caused by the line, the terminal or a regulatory issue outside the importer's control. A documented request, made promptly with evidence, is more effective than an argument at the counter after the fact.

Demurrage is one of the largest avoidable costs in Nigerian importing, and the reasons are structural.

Documentation must line up across the bill of lading, the Form M, the invoice, the packing list and the PAAR. A mismatch in a consignee name, a description or a value triggers a query, and the query takes days during which charges run.

Port congestion and access have long been a problem in Lagos in particular, where truck access and terminal capacity add delay nobody can control.

Funding is the third cause. Duty and charges are assessed on arrival and must be paid before release. An importer who has not planned the naira for that, or who is waiting on foreign exchange, watches the charges accumulate while arranging it.

The practical result is that the landed cost of a Nigerian import is not the invoice plus freight plus duty. It is those plus whatever delay occurs, and importers who do not budget for delay routinely find the margin gone.

Regulatory attention to shipping charges has increased, and the Nigerian Shippers Council acts as an economic regulator for the port sector, so an importer with a genuine grievance about charges has a route to raise it.

Three charges, two payees, and constant confusion.

Demurrage is charged by the shipping line while its container sits inside the terminal beyond the free days. You are paying the line for its box not moving.

Detention is charged by the shipping line once the container has left the terminal and has not been returned empty within the allowed period. Same payee, different location.

Storage or rent is charged by the terminal operator for the space the container occupies in the port. Different payee entirely, and it accrues alongside demurrage rather than instead of it.

So a container stuck at a Lagos terminal for three weeks is generating demurrage to the line and storage to the terminal simultaneously. Once collected and taken to a warehouse, storage stops and detention starts if the empty is not returned on time. Understanding which bill is which is the first step in reducing any of them.

The charges are contractual and generally enforceable. An importer who agreed the line's terms cannot usually argue that the daily rate is unfair.

Many causes of delay are also outside the importer's control, including congestion, regulatory queries and terminal capacity, and the charges accrue regardless.

Waivers are discretionary. Lines and terminals grant concessions where they judge it appropriate, and there is no entitlement.

And the cost is asymmetric. A small importer with a single container has no negotiating leverage on free days, while a volume shipper negotiates terms that make the same delay far cheaper.