Containers, a global maritime trade influencer, have increased the importance of ports. Ports serve as an economic catalyst for revenue and employment. The importance of container transport cannot be overemphasized in international trade especially in Nigeria. Hence, it becomes expedients to assess the elements of container terminal capacity, analyse the trend of cargo throughput and as well determine the relationship between handling equipment and cargo dwell time in Western ports in Nigeria. The study adopts multistage sampling. Also, both primary and secondary data were collected from the staff of the container terminal operators in Tincan Island Port Complex and Apapa Port Complex and 347 respondents were chosen using Yamene formular. Furthermore, Descriptive statistics such as frequency table, line graph, bar charts were used to examine the elements of container terminal capacity, analyse the trend of cargo throughput. The inferential statistics such as regression analysis was used examines the relationship between thandling equipment and cargo dwell time. The result showed a decline in cargo throughput from 2019 to 2020, a trend that can be directly attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, it was shown that the coefficient of handling equipment is 0.725, indicating that for every unit increase in the handling equipment score, the cargo dwell time increases by 0.725 units. The t-value of 21.558 and a significance level of 0.000 signify that the handling equipment is a significant predictor of cargo dwell time. Based on the findings of the study, it was concluded that terminal space, handling equipment, daily stock and port labour were significant factors or elements of container terminal capacity. It was recommended that Nigerian Ports Authority should invest more on sustainable infrastructure and terminal operators and stevedoring company should train and retrain their staff on modern handling equipment.
Keywords: Cargo throughput, Container, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), container terminal, shipping, terminal operators
