Category: Shipping and Transport

Dec 14, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has approved tax cuts up to 50 percent of car import prices to senior state sector workers after nearly halving tariffs on motor vehicles a few months ago, a finance ministry circular showed. Until recently ordinary Sri Lankan’s were paying vehicles import taxes of over 300 percent, while […]

Dec 13, 2010 (LBO) – A Sri Lankan boat yard taken over and revived by Dubai-based interests delivered a trawler for an African client last week and plans to meet Indian navy requirements for small patrol boats, officials said. Solas Marine Lanka is part of Solas Marine Services group, a Dubai-based multinational providing services to […]

Dec 12, 2010 (LBO) – Warships from foreign navies, including India, joined Sri Lanka’s navy in a sail past Saturday amid improving maritime security co-operation to combat crimes on the high seas like human and arms smuggling. The Chinese navy sent the frigate ‘Lanzhou’ and Pakistan the frigate ‘Zulfiqar’ while the navies of Iran, Thailand […]

December 10, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lankan police arrested four people Friday, including a Pakistani national, after seizing 50 kilos (110 pounds) of high-grade heroin with a street value of one million dollars. The drugs were found packed in a container of potatoes in the port of Colombo, police spokesman Prishantha Jayakody said. Most drug […]

NAIROBI, December 9, 2010 (AFP) – Somali pirates have released a Saudi oil tanker along with its 14-member crew which they seized nine months ago after a ransom was paid, a maritime watchdog said on Thursday. One act of piracy out of every two worldwide is carried out off the coasts of Somalia or in […]

Dec 09, 2010 (LBO) – The scheduled opening of an expressway linking Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo with the south next year will be delayed as heavy rain has impeded construction work on low-lying sections, an official said. The expressway is expected to result in greater economic development of the long-neglected southern region. The first phase […]

Dec 08, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is considering having “concessionary” bus fares at peak hours to help “private and public workers” one of the country’s transport ministers have told parliament, a media report said The minister for ‘private transport services’ C B Ratnayake was quoted as saying in the Daily Mirror newspaper that a […]

Dec 07, 2010 (LBO) – Container volumes handled by the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) hit a record two million in the 11 months to November 2010, up 26. 5 percent from a year ago, a statement said. Total containers handled by the port of Colombo would reach four million TEUs (Twenty-foot container Equivalent Units) […]

Dec 07, 2010 (LBO) – Container volumes at Sri Lanka’s South Asia Gateway Terminals (SAGT), a private transhipment facility in Colombo port, fell to a yearly low in November, latest statistics show. The private terminal has become a key source of profits for JKH in recent years, along with a bunker fuel unit in Colombo […]

Dec 06, 2010 (LBO) – Logiventures, a unit of Sri Lanka’s Hayleys group, expects an anticipated post-war construction boom to increase demand for its portable cabins made of converted cargo containers, a statement said. Since our Convertainers most often accommodate people in site offices, workshops, sanitary units and similar applications, quality management systems pertaining to […]

Dec 03, 2010 (LBO) – An emerging requirement for fast passenger ferries to link Indian island territories with the mainland could be an opportunity for Sri Lanka’s Colombo Dockyard, a visiting Indian official said. Jitendra Kumar Dadoo, the Administrator of the Union Territories of Lakshadweep, India, said faster passenger craft were needed to transport people […]

KUALA LUMPUR, December 2, 2010 (AFP) – Malaysia says it is taking steps to secure the release of a Malaysian-flagged cargo ship and its 23 crew seized by Somali pirates last week in the Indian Ocean. The MV Albedo container vessel was en route from the United Arab Emirates to Kenya when it was hijacked […]