Colombo Port January transshipment volumes growth tops 25%

The Port of Colombo experienced a significant surge in transshipment volumes, marking a record 25.5 percent Year-on-Year (YoY) increase to 562,527 TEUs in January. 
This growth, observed for the second consecutive month, was attributed to ongoing disruptions at the Red Sea, which continued to benefit the port’s operations.
In addition, the overall container throughput at the Port of Colombo saw a robust expansion, rising by 28 percent YoY to 691,150 TEUs in January. Transshipment volumes accounted for a substantial 81 percent of the total throughput, highlighting the port’s growing importance as a transshipment hub.

In the month, the import container (laden) volumes were up by 22.5 percent YoY to 40,364 TEUs, while the export container (laden) volumes marginally rose by 2.2 percent YoY to 21,913 TEUs. However, the restoring volumes at the port recorded 176 percent YoY noteworthy growth to reach 37,764 TEUs in the month. 
Driven by attacks on vessels in the Red Sea by Yemen’s Houthi rebels since late last year, the port emerged as a transit point for major shipping lines that decided to reroute their vessels around the Cape of Good Hope to avoid disruptions to shipments and high insurance premiums.  Accordingly, most shipping lines are unloading additional cargo at Port of Colombo and to be taken by feeder vessels in order to meet tight schedules on the longer Cape of Good Hope route.

The port’s only fully operational deep container terminal, Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT), handled 305,396 TEUs during the year, up by 16.1 percent from a year ago.
Meanwhile, the SLPA-managed Jaya Container Terminal (JCT) and its partially operational East Container Terminal (ECT) together handled 236,680 TEUs in January, recording 60.4 percent YoY growth. 
The container volumes handled by South Asia Gateway Terminal (SAGT) also rose by 15.3 percent YoY to 149,174 TEUs in the month.
In the month, 350 ships called on Port of Colombo compared to 347 vassals from a year ago This includes 317 container cargo ships, four conventional ships and other cargo ships which nearly doubled to 20 ships.