Box Trade

Aug 10, 2010 (LBO) - Container volumes at a Colombo port private terminal run by an associate firm of John Keells Holdings rose in July as harbour delays were sorted out and trade continued to grow, latest data showed.





South Asia Gateway Terminals, a key contributor to JKH's bottomline, handled 173,085 TEUs or twenty-foot equivalent container units (TEUs) in July 2010, up 9.

4 percent from a year ago.

It was the third highest ever monthly throughput at SAGT, analysts said.

Container volume growth had slowed down in June 2010 when the harbour was hit by delays caused by problems in trucking containers between terminals and bad weather.

The container volumes handled by SAGT so far this year are up 22.

3 percent to 1,183,172 TEUs compared with the same period a year ago.

The private terminal handled a record 1.

7 million TEUs in 2009.

However, two-thirds of the containers handled by SAGT consist of transhipment cargo to and from ports in the Indian subcontinent on which margins are lower than domestic export-import cargo.