Nigerian Oil Tanker Fleet to Recede as Investments in Maritime Sector Surge

The size of the Nigerian oil tanker Fleet is expected to reduce by 2.23 percent in 2018, an industry report has shown.
The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) on the Nigeria’s Maritime Industry Forecast 2018–2019 also projected that the fleet will increase by 1.7percent in 2019
The report also projected that total fleet size is expected to grow in 2018 and consolidate the growth in 2019.
The report reads, “From our analysis, we expect total fleet size to grow 4.08 percent in 2018 and 4.41 percent in 2019.
“We also project that oil tanker fleet size will decrease by 2.23 percent in 2018 and increase by 1.7percent in 2019. The non-oil tanker fleet size is projected to increase by 8.15 percent in 2018 and 8.72percent in 2019. The Oil rig count is projected to increase by 27.67percent in 2018 and 0percent in 2019.
The report further observed, that, ocean transportation will remain the most important mode of conveyance in international merchandise trade in the foreseeable future.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Shipowners Association (NISA) has said that there has been a steady increase in the level of investments and freight earnings from the maritime sector.
President of NISA, Alhaji Aminu Umar, disclosed this to newsmen in a chat recently.
Umar said that commercial banks in Nigeria are now ready to finance Nigerian ship owners, unlike what was obtained during the economic recession of 2016 when banks stopped lending to shipowners.
He added that foreign fund managers from Europe are also coming into Nigeria and talking about funding maritime assets in the country.
Umar said that the maritime sector could achieve 5% growth for 2018/2019 forecast by NIMASA and possibly surpass it.
“Based on what we have seen since the beginning of this year, we believe we can surpass the 5% growth forecast, if not the double digit, we believe it would be close to the double digit in the maritime sector”
“The foreign reserve of the country has gone up, this shows a positive impact on the economy which means that now, our banks have the funds to be able to fund shipping, we have seen positive impact on the banks because they are already now talking about funding a lot of maritime assets, so in my own opinion, the outlook looks very positive”
“Two years ago, banks did not even entertain you talk less of funding. We are now seeing a lot of positive investments, a lot of private equity funds are now coming to invest in maritime assets. We have seen foreign funds managers who are coming from Europe and are also talking about funding maritime assets here. We believe the outlook would be great for this year and 2019”
“For the past two years, the freight earnings have been down since 2016, but we are looking at it now that the freight earnings is already going up, in January, activities have improved”
Umar observed that the world maritime situation is improving, not only in Nigeria but globally.
According to him, a lot of ship owners are already looking at investing again in Nigeria because the freight rates are going up.

“We believe 2019 would be the peak in freight and maritime earnings. Shipping is connected to import and export and the growth of the economy”, he said.