Shifting container balance at Colombo

News-in-print 1 Jan 2003 by WCN Editorial

Throughput at Colombo was flat again last year but private operator SAGT continued to take business from state-run JCT

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In 2002 Colombo struggled to claw back business lost in the aftermath of the July 2001 airport attack that led insurance underwriters to place a war-risk surcharge on the port. Volume in the first six months of 2002 fell eight percent to 829,668 TEU, but in the months following the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) reported substantial increases in throughput each month compared to the same month in 2001 – up to 24.9 percent in September. However, the figures only serve to show how bad things were in the second half of 2001 as Colombo’s 2002 total was 1.74 mill TEU, about the same it has been for the last four years.

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This complete item is approximately 1550 words in length, and appeared in the January 2003 issue of WorldCargo News, on page 27. To access this issue download the PDF here.