CMHI wins ‘Terminal Operator of the Year’

CICT GM - Commercial and Marketing Tissa Wickramasinghe,  Eric Yan and Cathrene Chow

China Merchants Holdings International (CMHI), parent company of Colombo International Container Terminals Ltd. (CICT), has won the title of ‘Global Terminal Operator of the Year 2015’ at the annual Containerisation International Awards 2015 ceremony held in London.

With an output in excess of 80 million teus across all its container terminal businesses globally, CMHI represents a major player in the industry. 

Controlling a sizeable market of over 30% in mainland China, its overseas flag ship terminal is Colombo International Container Terminals Ltd. (CICT).

CICT, which was fully constructed and made operational in a record period of 28 months, enabled the Port of Colombo to be the only port placed on the ultra-large-container-carrier (ULCC) service network in the whole of South Asia. This achievement was only made possible due to the port construction and technical expertise provided through CMHI and the ability to access global shipping line networks of CMHI, the company said in a statement. 

CICT recorded a throughput of over 600,00 teus in the year 2014, its first full year of operation,  representing a market share of 14% in the Port of Colombo. This was in direct comparison to the record 14% volume growth achieved by the Port of Colombo during the same year, thereby confirming the new volumes introduced to the Port of Colombo through the access to the CMHI portfolio of shipping line customers.

CMHI provided a spectrum of specialised training programs for the local Sri Lankan ship-to-shore gantry crane operators at their state of the art training facilities in China. This enabled CICT to provide employment to very young school-leavers who have been gainfully employed at CICT and who are now being sought by other global terminal operators as well. 

Apart from providing training and container terminal operational expertise through Shekou Container Terminal which is the CMHI flagship terminal in China, CMHI has installed its own terminal operating system (TOS) to meet the specialised transshipment requirements of CICT and the Port of Colombo.

CMHI’s entry into Port of Colombo through CICT has enabled Port of Colombo to attract new shipping services as well as well as Shipping Lines which had earlier withdrawn services from the Port of Colombo. This is very clearly reflected in the container handling throughput figures.

Marketing and Commercial General Manager Tissa Wickramasinghe who represented CICT at the awards ceremony in London, was quoted as saying, “We at CICT are extremely proud and elated that our parent company CMHI won this prestigious award from among the top global terminal operators in the world. After having being short-listed in the last seven finalists, CMHI was selected as the best,” in the company-issued statement.  

This achievement will add tremendous value not only to CICT but to the Port of Colombo, in moving forward with the future development plans, the statement went on to say. 

“The successful public private partnership between CMHI and the SLPA has set the foundation for us to move forward with further investments in the port industry in Sri Lanka. The Port of Colombo being identified as the regional transshipment hub, and CICT being in the unique position of a ‘common-user’ terminal service provider, we are confident of serving all shipping lines with the same level of service that global terminal operators are known to deliver,” it noted.