• Down by 5.3% in 2022, reveals Ports Authority

The container throughput at the Colombo Port declined by 5.3% year-on-year (YoY) in 2022 as the decrease in global demand resulted in the decline of transshipments and import bans impacting import container volumes, the Sri Lanka’s Port Authority (SLPA) revealed.

Accordingly, the total container handling at the Colombo Port dropped to 6.86 million Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) in 2022 from 7.24 million TEUs in 2021, The transshipment volumes handled by the port declined by 3.7% YoY to 5.63 million TEUs, while transshipment volumes accounted for 82% of the port’s container throughput during the period.

Speaking to The Daily Morning Business, Chairman of Sri Lanka Shippers Council, Russell Juriansz said that, in other years, before the Chinese New Year, there is no space in vessels from China going to Europe and US, but he said that this year there was ample space in vessels as the world is going into a recession mode pushing down demand.

Transshipment volumes, which recorded a growth in the first half of 2022, started to decline from June as the main shipping lines temporarily opted for alternative routes with the country’s political and social unrest. 

The overall ship traffic at the Colombo Port was down by 0.7% YoY to 3,648 vessels. Despite the decline in volumes, the container ship traffic at the port rose by 3.4%  YoY to 3,282 ships during the year. In addition, there was a notable increase in ships calling at the port for bunkering purposes.

The decrease in global demand has also impacted the export container (laden) volumes as it dropped by 5.2% YoY to 301, 447 TEUs, while the continuous import ban sharply brought down the import container (laden) volumes by 19.4% YoY to 441,062 TEUs.

Similarly, restowing at the Port of Colombo also declined by two% YoY to 196,269 TEUs.

Further, data by SLPA showed that the Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT) handled 3.18 million TEUs during the year, down from 3.21 TEUs recorded in 2021.

Meanwhile, the SLPA-managed Jaya Container Terminal (JCT) and its partially operational East Container Terminal (ECT) together handled 1.92 million TEUs in 2022, down by 12.4% from 2.2 million TEUs handled in 2021. The container volumes handled by South Asia Gateway Terminal (SAGT) declined by 4.7% YoY to 1.75 million TEUs in the year.