Colombo Port draws more TEUs and cruise ships

Container-handling at the Port of Colombo is on the rise whilst it is also drawing more cruise ships, the SLPA said yesterday.

In the first 10 months of this year, Colombo port has witnessed the highest growth of 19.5% in transshipment container throughput as against the corresponding period in 2017. During the first ten months of 2018, the Port of Colombo handled 4,717,746 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of transshipment containers as against 3,948,163 TEUs handled in the corresponding period in 2017. Sri Lanka Ports Authority said under the leadership of Minister of Ports and Shipping Mahinda Samarasinghe, and advice from the SLPA Chairman Dr. Parakrama Dissanayake, the positive increase at SLPA-controlled terminal Jaya Container Terminal (JCT), and Colombo International Container Terminals (CICT) and South Asia Gateway Terminals (SAGT) collectively resulted in this increase.

Colombo expects to handle 7 million containers in 2018, up 12.9% from the 6.2 million TEUs handled in 2017 with joint marketing by three terminals: JCT, SAGT and CICT. 

It also said that Colombo Port has also achieved remarkable growth of the cruise ships calling. SLPA said 45 cruise ships have called at Port of Colombo in the past 10 months of this year, which is a 28.8% increase against the corresponding period in 2017. 

“This record-breaking growth is a significant achievement after the declaring of years 2017, 2018 and 2019 as tourism and investment years of Sri Lanka by President Maithripala Sirisena with the objective of creating a prosperous country. These years have been declared to ease the planning for the next three years to overcome all challenges in the fields of hotel and tourism in Sri Lanka by 2020,” SLPA said in a statement. 

MP Mahinda Samarasinghe with SLPA Chairman Dr. Parakrama Dissanayake

Following Samarasinghe assuming office as the Minister of Ports and Shipping, an exclusive three-year plan was introduced to develop the entire port sector in order to establish Sri Lanka as the most preferred maritime gateway to South Asia.

The Port of Colombo is ranked as the world’s No. 1 container growth port among the top 30 container ports for the first half of 2018. In container-handling, Port of Colombo has recorded a 15.6% growth for the first half of 2018 over the same period last year, according to Alphaliner Monthly 2018. It is also a significant achievement as it is the first time in history the Port of Colombo reaches the top of a global maritime ranking. With this growth, Port of Colombo has leapt ahead many other Asian ports, major European ports, and Dubai as well.

SLPA was awarded the Ports Authority of the Year 2018 Award by the Global Ports Forum (GPF). The fourth GPF awards ceremony, followed by the conference forum, was held in February this year at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.