CITING drop in import traffic, the management of APM Terminals Apapa has announced plans to reduce its staff strength.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the company explained that the effects of global price of oil falling from $114 per barrel in the summer of 2014 to less than $50 a barrel in October 2015, ”have rippled throughout the Nigerian economy, Africa’s largest, and are impacting staffing requirements at APM Terminals Apapa, Nigeria’s largest container handling facility”.
APM Terminals Head of Human Resources, Ms. Bunmi Pratt, was quoted as saying that “with cargo volumes down to 30 per cent compared with a year ago, and even after extensive cost-cutting measures taken throughout the terminal, we are unfortunately being forced to reduce our staffing in view of the business realities of the current economic environment.”
According to the statement, employment at APM Terminals Apapa, which began operations after a privatization initiative in 2006, has risen during the past 10 years from 467 to approximately 1000 in 2015.
Though the company did not disclose the number of staff to be affected by the intiative, it explained that a sharp drop in demand for consumer goods has been “particularly acutely felt at APM Terminals Apapa, which handles over half of all Nigerian imports”.
Brat said “respect and compassion for all employees are the very foundation of our business model”, adding that the company is working closely with the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria during this period of the transition”.
Danish conglomerate A.P. Møller-Maersk A/S disclosed recently that its Maersk Line container-shipping unit would cut 4,000 jobs from its land-based staff of 23,000.
