Sri Lanka’s Colombo port highlighted that it has handled a record 7 million TEUs for 2018, a rise by 1 million TEUs, in comparison to its 2017-handling, as stated by Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA).
Dr. Parakrama Dissanayake, the Secretary of the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Southern Development and Chairman of SLPA, addressed that the port showed an important increase in TEUs since during 2017 it handled 6 million TEUs and in 2018 it managed 7 million TEUs.
He highlighted that by the end of 2018 the transshipment volumes of the Port of Colombo has increased by 19.3%.
Sri Lanka's Port of Colombo is the world's top port with the highest container growth for the first half of 2018.
According to SLPA, the three terminal operators at the Port of Colombo, the Jaya Container Terminal (JCT) under SLPA, the South Asia Gateway Terminal (SAGT) and the Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT) early this year, reached into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to operate collectively to promote the Port of Colombo.
The MoU focused on eliminating the waiting time of all container vessels outside the port waters by allowing operations of vessels at the immediately available terminal.
SLPA signed its first Public Private Partnership (PPP) agreement with the SAGT in 1999 for 30 years that brought an investment of $220m up to today.
The next PPP agreement by SLPA for terminal operation was with the CICT in 2013 for 35 years that brought an investment of $550m to the Sri Lankan port sector.
Finally, the JCT that 100% belongs to SLPA is operated as the main state-owned terminal. The terminal reached a 15% increase during 2017, handling 2.3m TEU by the end-2018, despite showing a negative growth in 2016.
Source:safety4sea
