Colombo, Jan 2 (NIA) – Sri Lanka’s Colombo International Container Terminal, run by China Merchants Port Holdings said its container volumes grew 28% to two million in 2016, in its second year of operations, from the year before.
In a statement, CICT said the new volume has enabled the Port of Colombo to register overall incremental growth in the three consecutive years since CICT came into operation.
The company said Ultra Large Container Carriers and Very large Container Carriers, many of a size that only the Colombo South Terminal is capable of handling, had contributed 70 percent to the volumes it achieved in 2016.
CICT is the first and currently the only deep water terminal in South Asia equipped with facilities to handle the largest vessels afloat.
“The overall growth achieved by the Port of Colombo bears out the rationale for CICT’s successful operation,” CICT CEO, Ray Ren said.
“We are delighted with the new business CICT has attracted to the Port of Colombo in 2016, and proud of our contribution to the overall growth achieved by the Port.”
CICT General Manager, Commercial and Marketing, Tissa Wickramasinghe said that this historic achievement of 2 million teus was made possible mainly by the synergies developed through its parent company China Merchants Port Holdings.
“The ability to access the CMPH global network was the key factor in gaining and attracting new transhipment volumes to the Port of Colombo. With the introduction of new services and new shipping lines, CICT has set the trend for the Port of Colombo to stave off international competition for the highly sensitive and volatile transhipment cargo, in a depleted global shipping market,” he said.
In 2015, its first full year of operation, CICT 2015 handled 1.561 million teus, with the ULCC and VLCC segments making a 67% contribution to this volume.
The benefit of these mega carriers calling at the port cascades down to the other terminals and reinforces Colombo’s status as a major transhipment hub.
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