SLPA market share slides
The Colombo port has been growing but Chinese terminal operator CICT has been comfortably boosting its volumes compared to state owned Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) whose market share is now less than 50 per cent. First quarter figures released by the Colombo Port indicate that SLPA’s market share for the first quarter of 2016 fell to 41 per cent from 47 per cent in the same 2015 period and of 55 per cent in 2014. SLPA total volumes for the 2016 quarter were 580,222 TEUs, 587,684 TEUs in 2015 and 633, 853 TEUs in 2014, the data showed. China International Container Terminal (CICT) has however seen an increase in market share up at 32 per cent this year compared to 25 per cent in 2015 and 10 per cent in 2014.
Volumes at the new terminal, catering to deep draft vessels or the ultra large vessels not available at other terminals, had recorded increases of upto 445, 478 TEUs in total for the first quarter of this year. Last year, the total volume for the quarter was 319,943 TEUs against 116, 441 TEUs in 2014.
South Asia Gateway Terminal (SAGT) first quarter market share for 2016 slipped to 27 per cent this year from 28 per cent and 35 per cent in 2015 and 2014, respectively. This is despite its total volumes for this year rising to 374,257 TEUs from 347, 767 TEUs in 2015. SLPA volumes were down by 1.3 per cent in the first quarter whereas SAGT and CICT had grown by 7.6 per cent and 39.2 per cent respectively.