Category: Shipping and Transport

May 11, 2011 (LBO) – Hong Kong-based Orient Overseas Container Line has become the latest container shipping line to announce a freight rate hike in what carriers call ‘rate restoration’ programmes. OOCL has told shippers it is raising rates on Asia-Europe trade lanes as present rates were not sustainable. “The ocean freight rate for Asia […]

May 11, 2011 (LBO) – KIA Motors of South Korea plans to begin selling small cars in Sri Lanka by July 2011 following the introduction of its KIA Optima car in the island, an official said. KIA Optima cars with 2.0 litre petrol engines will begin arriving by September and will be sold at an […]

BEIJING, May 6, 2011 (AFP) – A Panama-registered cargo ship seized by pirates in the Arabian Sea has been rescued along with the 24 Chinese sailors aboard, the transport ministry in Beijing said Friday. US and Turkish teams freed the vessel, Full City, late Thursday, several hours after it had been hijacked about 800 kilometres […]

May 05, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is to develop the northern Kankesanturai port with Indian aid in a project that will deepen the harbour basin and build a breakwater, a government spokesman said. The Cabinet of ministers of approved a proposal by President Mahinda Rajapaksa as minister of ports to “rehabilitate” the Kankesanturai port […]

May 03, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is receiving 100 million US dollars to maintain an upgrade a 134 kilometre road connecting the island’s East to the Western side and also improve safety and sustainable maintenance. The 100 million dollar credit will be used to upgrade the ‘A6’ road from Ambepussa to Dambulla and Kantale […]

Apr 29, 2011 (LBO) – The United Kingdom’s Cleveland Bridge UK Ltd has won a contract to build 210 permanent steel bridges in Si Lanka in a project partly funded with a loan of 35 million sterling pounds (6. 2 billion rupees). A government statement said the Cabinet of ministers approved a proposal made by […]

Apr 27, 2011 (LBO) – The prices of Indian-made Maruti and Alto cars sold in Sri Lanka have gone up by 12 percent because of this week’s government import duty hike, according to agents who ship the vehicles. Shivantha de Zoysa, senior general manager, sales and marketing at Associated Motorways, said the price of an […]

Apr 25, 2011 (LBO) – Prices of several models of imported cars in Sri Lanka will rise after a government import duty increase, senior officials of motor vehicle importers said. The price of a Viva car imported from Malaysia with an engine capacity below 1,000 cc, which had become popular recently, could rise by 150,000 […]

Apr 22, 2011 (LBO) – Container volumes through Sri Lanka’s main port have maintained rapid growth so far this year with government data showing increasing domestic as well as transhipment cargo as local and regional trade rebounds. The number of ships calling at Colombo port has also increased after falling in 2010 compared with the […]

Apr 21, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA), which runs the island’s ports, increased revenue and operating profit in 2010 on the back of the global economic recovery which generated double-digit growth in cargo flows. The SLPA’s operating profit increased by 126 percent to 4. 4 billion rupees in 2010 from the previous […]

Apr 20, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lankan shippers could see the cost of shipping goods to key markets rise as shipping lines are expected to follow Hanjin’s recently announced rate hike with the peak season for cargo getting underway. Shipping lines on the main East-West trade route are struggling to raise rates to cope with […]

Apr 19, 2011 (LBO) – A new port being built in southern Sri Lanka could cost 41 percent or 148 million US dollars more because of additional rock blasting, re-shaped breakwaters and rising raw material prices, a newspaper report said. The additional cost of having to blast and remove bedrock found in the harbour amounts […]