Category: Shipping and Transport

June 28 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s national shipping line has shelved plans to acquire a tanker for crude oil imports and is going ahead with the purchase of a cargo vessel to supply the northern Jaffna peninsula, an official said Ceylon Shipping Corporation (CSC) officials said a cargo ship is the more urgent requirement because […]

June 28 (LBO) – Sri Lankan exporters look set for difficult times with freight rates on the rise and their cargo being squeezed out of container ships chock full of Chinese exports, a top freight forwarder said Wednesday. “We do have a problem,” Niral Kadawatharatchie, chairman of the Sri Lanka Freight Forwarders’ Association told its […]

June 21, 2007(LBO) – One of Sri Lanka’s largest used vehicle importers plans to import small cars from China and strike a deal with a big Chinese automaker to assemble vehicles locally, an official said.Sterling Automobiles, which claims to import half the reconditioned vehicles to the country from Japan, has just launched a brand new […]

June 19, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s only international airport is to resume around-the-clock operations after air raids by the Tamil Tiger rebels forced its closure at night, an official said Tuesday. The Tamil Tiger rebels have been fighting for a separate homeland since 1972. More than 60,000 people have been killed in the conflict.The […]

DUBAI, June 18, 2007 (AFP) – The booming Gulf emirate of Dubai said on Monday it has bought the Queen Elizabeth 2, one of the world’s most majestic cruise liners, for 100 million dollars from Britain’s Cunard Line.The ship will be berthed at a man-made island off the coast of Dubai and turned into a […]

June 18, 2007 (LBO) – South Asia Gateway Terminals (SAGT), Colombo Port’s privatised container facility, aims to handle 1.6 million containers by the end of this year, as India’s bulging trade volumes increase the flow of cargo through the harbour. SAGT’s new chief executive, Steven Edkins, believes Colombo will retain its status as South Asia’s […]

June 15, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Aitken Spence conglomerate is exiting from its ship-owning business because of lower earnings from chartering and rising maintenance costs, the company has said. The group has begun selling its fleet of small cargo ships which until recently helped boost the group’s bottom line. The group made a “strategic […]

June 12, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka should switch to mass urban transport to combat traffic congestion, and start a powerful umbrella organization to implement projects, a Sri Lankan-born professional heading a big US transport utility has advocated.The island should also build concrete roads, said Walter Wickramasinghe, Vice President and Director of Management of Metropolitan […]

VANCOUVER, Canada, June 5, 2007 (AFP) – The International Air Transport Association has given member airlines and travel agencies five extra months to switch entirely to electronic ticketing, to May 2008.IATA initially had scheduled the switchover to e-tickets, eliminating paper tickets, to be completed by December 31. The decision to extend the deadline was taken […]

June 03, 2007 (LBO) — A fire broke out aboard an Indian oil tanker undergoing repairs at the main port of Colombo Sunday, injuring 13 people, officials said.The firm is currently building two large size ocean going Anchor Handling Tug Supply Vessels with a 80 tonne Bollard Pull capacity for Greatship (India) Limited. The engine […]

June 01, 2007 (LBO) – SriLankan Airlines is stopping its domestic floatplane operations, in the wake of orders to stop flying to key destinations and a fall in tourist arrivals, the airline said. A team from the Dubai-based carrier is due in Sri Lanka to start talks on the extension, a senior treasury official said […]

May 25, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka government and Emirates airlines would soon have discussions on extending Srilankan Airlines’ management deal with the Dubai based carrier, a top official said. “A team is coming to meet the President on this,” Finance Ministry Secretary P B Jayasundera told LBO Friday. Dubai government-owned Emirates has a 10-year […]