Post congestion vessels continue to bypass Colombo Port
The congestion at the Colombo port is over and the volumes are coming back to normal, Sri Lanka Ports Authority Chairman Gen. Daya Ratnayaka said on Friday.
He noted that there is not much of a drop in volumes but currently they were facing certain international trade issues pertaining to lack of numbers of bigger boxes to have sufficient space for Sri Lankan exporters. “Our exporters don’t have enough containers,” he said adding that they want bigger boxes.
Meanwhile about 10 per cent of vessels continue to bypass the port and would take about three months to return. Ceylon Association of Shipping Agents (CASA) Chairman Iqram Cuttilan told the Business Times that since the congestion experienced last October / November vessels had rerouted and as a result “certain services are still bypassing Colombo.”
He noted that when ships got delayed they are rerouted and that is expected to take about another three months to come back.
This would mean less business for the Colombo port and a dip in cargo volumes as total volumes reached 6.75 million TEUs in 2020 compared to 7.2 million TEUs in 2019.
However today since the congestion was brought under control there have been no issues at the port and hardly any berthing delays and inter terminal transfers are happening without any issues, Mr. Cuttilan explained.
Imports reduced due to capacity issues since certain lines are still not calling Colombo and as a result there is less space for imports and exports on containers which in turn affects Sri Lankan importers and exporters, Mr. Cuttilan explained. As a result, freight rates continue to spiral due to lack of space on containers and are still at over 100 per cent that is said to be a worldwide phenomenon due to a sudden surge in Chinese exports towards the latter part of 2020.
CICT General Manager Catriona Jayasundera commented on Thursday that though they continue to experience berthing delays since vessels are “coming out of schedule” as most are long haul heading to Europe, things are improving and “everything is back to normal.”
She pointed out that as a whole the port has recovered a lot and this is expected to be a challenging year as the COVID is not yet over and that is “beyond our control.”
Meanwhile the SAGT had achieved 1.86 million TEUs for last year and operations have returned to normal since the last seven weeks, SAGT CEO Romesh David told the Business Times on Friday.