CICT marks tenth anniversary, projects 3.1 mn TEUs in 2021

Colombo International Container Terminals (CICT) is ending 2021 on a high note, celebrating its milestone 10th anniversary in Sri Lanka today and reaching the milestone of 3 million TEUs within a year for the first time.

The company said its throughput for the full year is expected to reach approximately 3.1 million TEUs by December 31st, representing a healthy increase of around 11 percent over 2020.
Notably, CICT achieved its first 1 million TEUs milestone in just eight months, from January to August 2015 and ended that year with 1.56 million TEUs. The company handled 2 million TEUs in a single year for the first time in 2016.  

It recorded incremental increases in annual throughput thereafter, handling 2.38 million TEUs in 2017, 2.67 million teus in 2018, 2.9 million TEUs in 2019 and 2.89 million TEUs in 2020.
The company, which manages the Colombo South Terminal, commenced construction of the terminal in December 2011 and began port operations in 2013. The volume handled by the terminal has grown five-fold since then.

“We are delighted to have played the role expected of us with flying colours in our first decade as an integral part of the Port of Colombo,” CICT CEO Jack Huang said. 

“We have been a significant contributor to the port’s throughput by attracting vessels which would otherwise have bypassed Colombo because of the absence of a deep-water terminal. CICT is also proud to have led the way in promoting eco-friendly operations and innovations in service.”

Sri Lanka’s single largest private-sector foreign investment project at the time, CICT’s noteworthyprogress included completion of Stage 1 of the terminal to a quay length of 400m byJuly 2013, reaching Stage 2 with a quay length of 1000m in December the same year, and completingthe terminal with a quay length of 1200m by April 2014.   

CICT is also responsible for several firsts in service innovation and eco-friendly operations. These include a US$ 10 million programme to convert its entire fleet of diesel operated rubber-tyred-gantry cranes to electricity driven rubber-tyred gantry cranes (E-RTGs) which have zero carbon emissionsby 2017. As a result, CICT achieved a 45 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions and a 96 percent reduction in diesel consumption.

In 2019, the company added two new mega Quay Gantry Cranes (QGCs) which are now the tallest cranes in the Port of Colombo, to a fleet of QGCs which wasalready the biggest gantry cranes in the Indian Subcontinent region.

This, along with other purchases such as six new Rubber-tyred Gantry Cranes (RTGs) and 12 Prime Movers, were made to enhance the terminal’s deep-water capacity and make Colombo one of the few ports in Asia capable of handling vessels of 22,000 plus TEUs.

In the same year CICT commissioned Sri Lanka’s first, and South Asia’s most advanced, Dangerous Goods Storage Facility (DGSF) with an investment of US$ 1.5 million.