Negative box growth persists at Colombo Port

The Colombo Port is continuing to face rough weather with September marking the sixth consecutive month of negative growth trajectory.

In April when the first year on year decline was reported it was dismissed as not alarming. However Colombo Port appears to have not recovered since.

In September overall handling of containers declined by 3.3% but lower than decline of 5% and 10.5% in the preceding two months.

Transhipment boxes handled were down by 2.2%, again lower in comparison to decline of 3.6% in August and 7.5% in July.

An analysis of January to September 2022 data shows erratic performance which has caused concern among Colombo Port users.

Number of ships calling at Colombo was down by 5.7% to 2,964 in the first nine months.

During January to September 2022 transhipment boxes handled amounted to 4.3 million TEUs, down by 0.8% and total throughput was down by 2.5% to 5.23 million TEUs. 

In 2021, the Colombo Port handled 5.85 million transhipment TEUs up 4.3% from 2020 whilst total throughput was 7.25 million TUEs, up 5.8%.