Can someone please explain to me why Nigeria is not a major manufacturer of containers?

Ayo Akinfe

(1) Freight containers are a reusable transport and storage unit for moving products and raw materials between locations or countries. There are about 17 million intermodal containers in the world

(2) About 85% of the world’s containers are manufactured in China

(3) Do you know that 90% of African imports and exports are expedited by cargo ships. Egypt’s Port Said alone handles about 3m containers a year

(4) A single carrier ship can transport as many as 8,000 containers. Basically, what this means is that as global trade grows, so too will the demand for containers

(5) Even after they are no longer deemed fit for shipping, containers are put to all other sorts of uses including being used as shops, swimming pools, quirky housing, cafes, kiosks, etc

(6) Shipping containers are also used in the film and television industry for building temporary sets. They would be very handy for Nollywood

(7) They can also be broken down and used for drums and other smaller metal objects and utensils

(8) Given that Nigeria is bang in the middle of Africa’s maritime route, one of our coastal ports would be an ideal location to site a container manufacturing plant

(9) Landlocked countries like Niger Republic, Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, etc are very dependent on containers for their goods. They would order thousands from Nigeria if we began manufacturing them

(10) China International Marine Container Group is the biggest manufacturer worldwide with 11 factories and an annual capacity of 2m containers. Can the governor of one of our coastal states like Lagos, Ondo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom or Cross River please invite this company to come and open a plant in Nigeria. I would actually want them to take over either Ajaokuta or Aladja steel plant too, so the supply of raw materials is guaranteed