Colombo Port faces capacity, revenue loss
Inefficiencies at the Port of Colombo resulting in congestion are likely to cause a loss of about 8000 TEUs per week of transshipment volume and another 350 TEUs per week contributing to a capacity and revenue loss.
With regional capacities increasing shipping lines are looking at more options becoming available like India’s Vizhingham and Mundra ports, industry sources said. This has led to lines like MSC withdrawing permanently their Himalayan Express service as they will lose their service when they cannot perform in Colombo.
It was pointed out that this would be the case with any shipping line when faced with difficulties in one port.
With the Himalaya Express operating over 5000 TEUs to Colombo the congestion has led them to opt for Vizingham. However, the industry pointed out that Vizhingham, being a relatively new port, it is not capable of handling large capacity.
This kind of permanent withdrawal of operations to Colombo would lead to other vessel operators also adopting a similar stance.
With Colombo mainly handling transshipment business to India there is an advantage for the vessels that take containers directly to Indian ports.
It was pointed out that Colombo should be able to retain and attract more volumes.
However, Sri Lanka Ports Authority officials said that while it is partially correct that congestion has led to vessels withdrawing from Colombo, it was not the total truth.
They note that lines were looking at extending the number of free days at the port and in doing so bring about changes to the Terminal Service Agreements (TSAs).
But this was shot down by former Shipper’s Council Chairman Sean Van Dort who pointed out that this is the method adopted by the port authorities as they try to cover up their inefficiencies.
He noted that this was the result of years of inefficient handling of the port operations by successive governments and was also critical of the present head of the SLPA, a former Navy Commander.
Mr. Van Dort pointed out that following the MSC pull out other feeder vessels are likely to follow suit.
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