Fire breaks out on MSC container ship in Colombo
NewsThe SLPA Fire Brigade successfully extinguished a fire on the MSC Capetown III at Colombo Port, with all crew safely evacuated.
CMHI takes majority stake in Colombo South
China Merchants Holdings International (CMHI) has taken a 55% stake in Sri Lanka’s Colombo South Container Terminal (CSCT) development, becoming its largest shareholder.
At an expected investment of more than US$500M, the deal would be the largest single foreign investment by a private company in Sri Lanka, CMHI said.
As previously reported in WorldCargo News, the joint venture company Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT) has been granted the rights to manage and operate the terminal for 35 years. Sri Lanka-listed Aitken Spence holds 30% of the joint venture and the Sri Lanka Ports Authority 15%.
CMHI, which has stakes in ports moving about a third of China’s containers, made the investment to target rising trade in India and other South Asian nations, chairman Fu Yuning said.
CMHI handled 52.28M TEU last year, ranking it No1 in China and the fourth-largest container port operator in the world. The company has begun to expand overseas as rising competition pares margins at Chinese ports.
Infrastructure for the new facility is being built by China Harbour Engineering Co and Sino Hydro Corp, which also built Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port complex, with the aid of a US$350M loan from China Development Banking Corporation.
When the first phase is complete in 2013, CICT will have 1,200m of quay, with a depth alongside of 18m, allowing it to handle the world’s largest container vessels. The terminal has designed capacity of 2.4M TEU per year.
Current handling capacity at Colombo is put at 4.5M TEU/year. Throughput hit 4M TEU last year, representing growth of 15.6% year-on-year.
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