“The port of Colombo having handled 1m teu in 1995, took nine years to handle 2m teu in 2004. Having handled 4m teu in 2010, it took five years to handle 5m teu in 2015. In the year 2017, the port handled 6m teu and it took two years to handle that extra million. But what is unique is that this year, the port of Colombo handled 7m teu and that one million took only one year. By the end of this year the transhipment volumes of the port of Colombo has increased by 19.3%,” said Dr Parakrama Dissanayake, secretary of the ministry of ports, shipping and southern development and chairman of SLPA.
Three terminals – Jaya Container Terminal (JCT), South Asia Gateway Terminal (SAGT), Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT) – have helped Colombo port achieved the 7m teu last year.
The terminal operators of JCT, SAGT and CICT have signed memorandum of understandings to collectively raise the efficiency at Colombo port, such as reducing waiting time for container vessels.
SLPA signed its first Public Private Partnership (PPP) agreement with the SAGT in 1999 for 30 years that brought an investment of $220m to-date.
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.
The JCT that occupies a 100% ownership by SLPA is operated as the main state-owned terminal. Although it showed a negative growth in 2016, the terminal reached a 15% growth against 2017, handling 2.3m teu by the end-2018. The JCT has also recorded an increase of 23.3% transhipment volumes.
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