The container volume was up 33 percent from the same month the previous year when trade volumes had slumped owing to recession.
It was SAGT’s second highest-ever monthly volumes, according to analysts.
The rise in container volumes indicates the recovery in trade was gathering momentum, analysts said.
SAGT, in which John Keells Holdings has a 42.2 percent stake, handled a record high volume of containers in 2009 despite the global economic slump which reduced shipping volumes worldwide.
In 2009 SAGT’s volumes were up 1.4 percent to 1,749,796 TEUs from the previous year and it also took market share from the government-owned terminals.
In December 2009, SAGT’s container volumes rose 26.5 percent to 155,691 TEUs from a year earlier.
However, 76 percent of SAGT’s container volumes consist of transshipment traffic on which