Transshipment volumes fall for third month as Colombo Port faces new competition

• Transshipment volumes handled by port in July dropped by 6% YoY
• Number of container ships calling at Colombo Port contracted by 17.8% YoY  to 277 ships

By Nishel Fernando 
The transshipment volumes declined for the third straight month, bringing to a four-month low in July this year, as the Colombo Port started to see competition from the newly operationalised Adani’s Vizhinjam Port located in South India.
In July, the transshipment volumes handled by the port declined by 6 percent year-on-year (YoY) to 489,286 of 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs), recording the steepest decline so far seen during this year. 
The number of container ships calling at the Colombo Port also declined by 17.8 percent YoY to 277 ships in the month.
The overall transshipment volumes grew by 7.3 percent YoY to 3.68 million TEUs in the first half of this year, driven by a double-digit growth recorded during the first four months of the year, before the port started to experience heavy congestion, resulting in significant delays, forcing shipping lines to reroute some of their services. 
Adani’s Vizhinjam International Seaport, which commenced limited-scale commercial operation from July 11, this year, has positioned itself to benefit from this development.
According to media reports, the vessel-related charges (VRC) for Vizhinjam calls have been set substantially lower than the rating scale at the Colombo Port. A 30,000 gross registered tonnage, requiring a 24-hour berth stay, would only incur approximately US $ 10,000 towards VRC at Vizhinjam, compared with about US $ 21,000 at the Colombo Port.
As per the media reports, Maersk has already devised a network revamp plan to shift some of its transshipment calls for Indian cargo, usually moving via the Colombo Port, to the Vizhinjam Port.

In July, the overall container throughput at the Colombo Port also declined by 1.5 percent YoY to 
615,727 TEUs. 
In the month, the import container (laden) volumes were up by 25.3 percent YoY to 48,331 TEUs, while the export container (laden) volumes were up by 3.3 percent YoY to 27,039 TEUs. The restowing volumes at the port jumped by 46.5 percent YoY to 22,640 TEUs in the month.
The port’s only fully operational deep container terminal, Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT), handled 271,143 TEUs during the year, down by 3.5 percent from a year ago. The Sri Lanka Port Authority-managed Jaya Container Terminal (JCT) and its partially operational East Container Terminal (ECT) together handled 179,636 TEUs, down by 1.54 percent from a year ago.  However, the container volumes handled by South Asia Gateway Terminal were up by 1.8 percent YoY to 164,948 TEUs in the month.