Sri Lanka’s Colombo Port records increase in container volumes handled from Jan.-Aug. 2017
Sri Lankan state statistics have reported that container volumes handled at the country’s Colombo port has increased 6.3 percent in the eight months to August 2017, with transhipment up 6.0 percent to 3.057 million twenty foot equivalent units.
According to reports quoting data of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, domestic volumes have increased 7.4 percent to 913,382 TEUs.
Total containers including re-stowing handled at Colombo was 4.021 million in the eight months to August, which is an increase of 6.3 percent from a year earlier.
In the month of August volumes have recorded a growth of 4.2 percent to 538,605 TEUs.
Transhipment volumes grew 3.1 percent to 407,333 TEUs and domestic volumes grew 8.5 percent to 121,910 TEUs.
Colombo mainly tranships cargo from India. Chinese owned, Colombo International Container Terminals, have been a key driver of growth over the past two years.
OSL take:
The increase recoded in the handling of containers at the Colombo Port while indicating a growth in the traffic that calls at the port, local shipping companies could lobby for more foreign shipping lines to use the Colombo Port as a stop over as well. On the other hand, an innovative investor could explore the possibility of initiating a programme to uplift the facilities available at the Colombo Port for the crew that call at the port. Also, businesses could look at supplying goods required by ships before they set sail for their next destination.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/30102017/Z_3 |