Category: Shipping and Transport

May 30, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Mercantile Shipping lost 38 million rupees in the March 2011 quarter through revenues rose 22 percent to 197 million rupees, according to interim accounts. Last year Mercantile Shipping warned shareholders that despite taking delivery of new vessels international charter rates were depressed in the near term. For the […]

May 30, 2011 (LBO) – A passenger vessel that can carry up to 1,044 people is to be used to launch a transport service between Sri Lanka’s Colombo port and the south Indian harbour of Tuticorin. The ‘Scotia Princess’ ferry will initially do two voyages a week, said Classic Travels, a subsidiary of Expolanka Holdings, […]

May 29, 2011 (AFP) – India’s Tata Nano, billed as the world’s cheapest car, began its first export sales Sunday by entering the Sri Lankan market — but with a price tag nearly three times what it is at home. Sri Lanka reduced car duties by almost half in June last year, but then raised […]

May 22, 2011 (LBO) – India’s first cruise ship, Chennai flagged AMET Majesty will make calls on Sri Lanka’s Colombo and Trincomalee ports when it begins high seas cruises in June, a media report said. India is already the largest generator of tourists to Sri Lanka. Arrivals have boomed since the island introduced visa on […]

May 16, 2011 (LBO) – Container cargo at Sri Lanka’s main port of Colombo, south Asia transhipment hub, rose in the first quarter of this year indicating continued growth in regional and domestic trade. Ship traffic at Colombo port rose eight percent to 376 in March 2011 from a year and grew 4.3 percent to […]

May 13, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lankan ship builder Colombo Dockyard said March 2011 quarter net profit rose 78. 4 percent to 467 million rupees from a year ago with gains from both ship building and repair. The Dockyard filing said that with effect from January 01, 2011, that it has recognised additional revenue of […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]