Impact of COVID-19 on Turnaround Time of Vessels in Onne Port
Chapter One
Aim and Objectives
This study aimed to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on the turnaround time of vessels in Onne Port. The specific objectives are to:
- examine the level of COVID-19 in Nigeria.
- investigate the impact of COVID-19 on cargo throughput in Onne port.
- investigate the impact of COVID-19 on vessel turnaround time in Onne port.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
The chapter deals with literature review on the concept of the impact of COVID-19 on turnaround time of vessels in Onne port. This involves various definitions of ship, Maritime transport, COVID-19, Nigeria Maritime Industry, Covid-19 Impact on Maritime Trade and Port Calls, overview of Onne port, the review of empirical studies, theoretical review and theoretical framework.
Conceptual Framework
In this section, the basic relevant concepts were reviewed. These include ship, Maritime transport, COVID-19 among others.
Ship
A ship is a large watercraft that travels the world’s oceans and other sufficiently deep waterways, carrying goods or passengers, or in support of specialized missions. Ships have supported exploration, trade, warfare, migration, colonization, and science. Ship transport is responsible for the largest portion of world commerce. A legal definition of ship from Indian case law is a vessel that carries goods by sea. In 2019, the world’s fleet included 51,684 commercial vessels with gross tonnage of more than 1,000 tons, totalling 1.96 billion tons (UNCTAD, 2019).
Types of ships
Because ships are constructed using the principles of naval architecture that require same structural components, their classification is based on their function such as that suggested by Paulet and Presles (1999) which requires modification of the components. The categories accepted in general by naval architects are:
- High-speed craft – Multihulls including wave piercers, small-waterplane-area twin hull (SWATH), surface effect ships and hovercraft, hydrofoil, wing in ground effect craft (WIG).
- Off shore oil vessels – Platform supply vessel, pipe layers, accommodation and crane barges, non and semi-submersible drilling rigs, production platforms, floating production storage and offloading units.
- Dry cargo ships – tramp freighters, bulk carriers, cargo liners, container vessels, barge carriers, Ro-Ro ships, refrigerated cargo ships, timber carriers, livestock & light vehicle carriers.
- Liquid cargo ships – Oil tankers, liquefied gas carriers, chemical carriers.
- Passenger vessels – Liners, cruise and Special Trade Passenger (STP) ships, Cross-channel, coastal and harbour ferries, Luxury & cruising yachts, Sail training and multi-masted ships
- Special-purpose vessels – weather and research vessels, deep sea survey vessels, and icebreakers.
- Submersibles – industrial exploration, scientific research, tourist and hydrographic survey.
A ship may also be categorized as to how it is operated.
- A linerwill have a regular run and operate to a schedule. The scheduled operation requires that such ships are better equipped to deal with causes of potential delay such as bad weather. They are generally higher powered than tramp ships with better seakeeping qualities, thus they are significantly more expensive to build. Liners are typically built for passenger and container operation though past common uses also included mail and general cargo.
- A tramphas no fixed run but will go wherever a suitable cargo takes it. Thus a ship and crew may be chartered from the ship owner to fetch a cargo of grain from Canada to Latvia, the ship may then be required to carry a cargo of coal from Britain to Melanesia. Bulk carriers and some cruise ships are examples of ships built to operate in this manner.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Introduction
This chapter covers the methodology of this study. Key issues discussed includes; data collection, sampling technique, instrument for data collection, method of data analysis among others.
Research Design
The research design employed is survey. It is used as an assessment tool to provide information on which to base sound decisions. It also serves as a foundation for more investigation. The data gathered in a survey are usually answers to predetermined questions that are asked of respondents. This research method was adopted because it offers opportunity for the collation of facts and information from a wide spectrum of respondents without much expense, hence it is expedient for this research.
The use of survey is a favourable option for the following reasons:
- It is accurate
- It is unstructured and can capture time change.
This method is objective in the sense that the personal bias of the researcher is not allowed in findings.
Population of the Study
The population targeted for this study includes key experts in the marine industry. The respondents will be key stakeholders in marine industries who will include the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigerian Shipowners Association (NSA), the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) and ship operators.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
Introduction
In this chapter, the researcher tends to deal with the analysis and presentation of data collected in the course of this project. A total of 400 copies of questionnaire were administered in the area under study and 372 copies were retrieved from the respondents. This represents 93% return rate.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
This chapter deals with the summary of this study, conclusions from the findings and recommendations which can be used for policy making.
Summary
This study investigates the impact of COVID-19 on turnaround time of vessels in Onne port. The study is in five chapters. In the first chapter, a general background of the study was undertaken. In view of the background, the problems of study were identified and stated, the research questions, the objective, scope and significant of the study were outline and discussed. Finally, in the first chapter is the definition of key concepts used in the study.
Chapter two contains the review of various literatures on the concept of the impact of COVID-19 on turnaround time of vessels in Onne port. This involves various definitions of ship, Maritime transport, COVID-19, Nigeria Maritime Industry, Covid-19 Impact on Maritime Trade and Port Calls, overview of Onne port. Also in the second chapter is the empirical and theoretical reviews, theory use as a basis for this study (The infectious disease transmission mechanism theory) was found best for this study.
In the third chapter of this work, the research design, population of study, sample size, sampling techniques, instrument for data collection, method of data collection, validity/reliability of instrument and method of data analysis were all discussed.
In the fourth chapter, data collected (primary) were presented and analysed to answer the research questions. Based on the various findings, the three questions were answered. After the analysis, the findings are as follows:
- The level of coronavirus disease in Nigeria is average.
- Coronavirus disease has significant effect on cargo throughput in Onne port.
- Coronavirus disease affect turnaround time of vessels in Onne port negatively.
Conclusion
This study has underscored the impact of COVID-19 on turnaround time of vessels in Onne port. Findings from this research uncovered that the infectious epidemic has great effect on the smooth functionality of the marine industry. This is consistent with the findings of Kristine, Catherine, Richard, Yasha and William (2019) which revealed that beyond the public health impacts of regional or global emerging and endemic infectious disease events lay wider socioeconomic consequences that are often not considered in risk or impact assessments. With rapid and extensive international travel and trade, such events can elicit economic shock waves far beyond the realm of traditional health sectors and original geographical range of a pathogen.
Thus, in the light of the foregoing, this study reliably concludes that coronavirus disease has a negative effect on port activities.
Recommendations
On the strength of the observations and findings made in this study the following recommendations have been made.
- Measures should be devised to curb the spread of the virus and vaccine created so as to prevent further hinge on shipping activities.
- Regulatory protocols and processes should be lenient to favour port activities.
- Port should define means to function without adverse effect on their activities.
Suggestions for Further Studies
This study has researched on the impact of COVID-19 on turnaround time of vessels in Onne port. Further research can be done on the following:
- Impact of coronavirus disease on shipping activities.
- Impact of coronavirus disease on logistics.
REFERENCES
- Ugochukwu, U. O., Uchechi, C. E., Chuku, A., & Huldah, I. N. (2015). Ebola epidemic – the Nigerian experience. The Pan African Medical Journal. 2015;22 (Supp 1):17. doi:10.11604/pamj.supp.2015.22.1.6625
- Kristine, M. S., Catherine, C. M., Richard, S., Yasha, F., & William B. K. (2019) Infectious disease and economics: The case for considering multi-sectoral impacts. Retrieved from ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Collinson, S., Khan, K., & Heffernan, J. M. (2015) The Effects of Media Reports on Disease Spread and Important Public Health Measurements. PLoS ONE 10(11): e0141423. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0141423.
- Sulaimon, S. (2019). Onne Port to reduce ship turnaround time. Retrieved from https://guardian.ng/business-services/onne-port-to-reduce-ship-turnaround-time/
- Paulet, D. & Presles, D. (1999). Architecture navale, connaissance et pratique (in French). Paris: Éditions de la Villette. ISBN 978-2-903539-46-7.
- UNCTAD (2019). Review of Maritime Transport 2019. Retrieved from https://unctad.org/webflyer/review-maritime-transport-2019
- Devran, Y., Bekir, S., Tsz, L. Y. & Po-Hsing, T. (2021). Effects of COVID-19 on maritime industry: a review. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348170507_Effects_of_COVID-19_on_maritime_industry_a_review
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