Colombo transshipment climbs as adverse weather threatens to worsen port congestion
By Nishel Fernando The transshipment volumes at the Port of Colombo rose 7.8 percent year-on-year (YoY) to 638,843 TEUs in August, lifting their share of total container throughput to 82.3 percent, from 79.9 percent a year earlier, while the overall container handling grew at a slower 4.7 percent to 776,300 TEUs, according to Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) data. Transshipment added 46,430 TEUs during the month, more than the port’s entire net gain of 35,176 TEUs, as the domestic cargo moved in the opposite direction. The laden imports fell 16.3 percent to 45,769 TEUs and the laden exports declined 4.4 percent to 26,896 TEUs. This contrasts with the eight-month period, when the laden imports were up 4.9 percent at 429,160 TEUs and the laden exports up 2.0 percent at 208,004 TEUs, suggesting the softening in local trade is recent and has been masked by the surge in the relay cargo. For the first eight months, the port handled 5,994,847 TEUs, up 10.3 percent, with transshipment of 4,827,968 TEUs accounting for 474,983 TEUs or nearly 85 percent, of the 560,009 TEU increase. At this pace, Colombo is set to comfortably surpass its 2025 record of 8.29 million TEUs and end the year at nearly nine million TEUs, around 8.5 percent higher. However, the growth has been uneven across terminals. The Colombo West International Terminal handled 171,875 TEUs in August, up 68.1 percent, lifting its share to 22.1 percent, from 13.8 percent. The Colombo International Container Terminals (CICT) remained the largest at 262,124 TEUs, marginally down 0.5 percent, while the South Asia Gateway Terminals (SAGT) fell 5.8 percent to 159,041 TEUs and the SLPA-operated Jaya, Unity and East Container Terminals together dropped 11.3 percent to 183,260 TEUs. Total ship arrivals edged up 1.4 percent to 353 in August, even as the container vessel calls fell 5.9 percent to 286, while the bunkering calls nearly doubled to 29, from 15. At the CICT, the container vessel calls dropped 19.8 percent to 77, while the volumes held steady, raising the average exchange per call by 24 percent to around 3,404 TEUs. Total cargo handled declined 4.2 percent to 9.25 million tonnes, with the containerised cargo down 6.7 percent to 8.44 million tonnes, although the tonnage for the SAGT and CICT is estimated. Over eight months, the ship arrivals rose 2.8 percent to 2,780 and the cargo handled grew 2.8 percent to 80.04 million tonnes. Meanwhile, an industry source told Mirror Business that the congestion has eased but not fully cleared, with the vessel turnaround time at the CICT down to four to five days from around seven days earlier. The yard operations at the port are still running at 125 percent of capacity, the source noted, attributing the pressure primarily to the Gulf cargo diverted from Jebel Ali, amid the Middle East tensions, as reported earlier by Mirror Business, while a shortage of tugs continues to slow the vessel movements. The easing is borne out by German liner Hapag-Lloyd’s Week 38 operational update, which placed the CICT delays at up to five to seven days, citing a yard density above 130 percent across all terminals, an inter-terminal transfer (ITT) backlog of up to 52,000 TEUs and bad weather. Three weeks earlier, the carrier reported delays of 24 to 36 hours, with an ITT backlog of 35,000 TEUs, a 49 percent jump. The source cautioned that the congestion could worsen over the next two days, as the weather deteriorates. The Meteorology Department expects a low-pressure area in the Bay of Bengal to intensify into a deep depression by September 22, with the winds in the affected sea areas reaching up to 70 kilometres per hour, while the wind flow towards the system is set to prolong rainy conditions across the southwest. The strong winds disrupted the vessel movements and berthing at Colombo earlier this month and fresh stoppages would compound the backlog at a port operating a quarter above the yard capacity.
