DENNING MR (Delivering the Lead Judgment): In July 1975 the port of Lagos/Apapa was congested with shipping. All the berths were occupied. There were 300 to 400 ships outside waiting. More ships were arriving daily. Most of them were carrying cement. All of those waiting were on demurrage. It was because the government departments had ordered far too much. No doubt Nigeria needed cement. It was a country which was developing fast. They were building houses, factories, barracks, and so forth. All of the work required cement. Previously the average rate of import through all ports had been 2,000,000 tons of cement a year. Yet early in 1975 the government departments then in charge in Nigeria had ordered ten times that quantity, 20,000,000 tons, to be delivered over the next 12 months. The ports were utterly unable to cope with it. Even for all commodities together, the discharging capacity at Lagos/Apapa did not amount to 2,000,000 tons a year. Yet here was ten times that amount arriv…