Category: Shipping and Transport

Mar 15, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Colombo port will get new cranes before the end of this year to replace aging equipment and improve cargo handling capacity, a senior official said. Container traffic in Colombo, which is a hub for south Asian cargo, has begun to recover after dipping last year because of global […]

Mar 12, 2010 (LBO) – The Sri Lanka Ports Authority is in talks with suppliers of liquid petroleum gas to introduce a third player in the local market once a storage terminal is built in a new port, an official said. SLPA chairman Priyath Wickrama said the LPG storage terminal would come up in the […]

Mar 10, 2010 (LBO) – Cargo volumes at a Colombo port private container terminal in which John Keells Holdings has a big stake hit a monthly high in February as trade flows rebounded from global recession last year. South Asia Gateway Terminals handled 164,243 TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent container Units) in February 2010, its highest volumes […]

Mar 10, 2010 (LBO) – DHL Express, a global logistics company, said it has opened an ‘airside gateway’ facility at Sri Lanka’s sole international airport north of the capital Colombo that will help speed up air cargo shipments. Romesh David, president of JKH’s transportation group, said the two companies had invested over 250 million rupees […]

Mar 08, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s taxes on motor vehicles are ‘prohibitive’ and are discouraging imports and government revenues, the finance ministry has said in a report, echoing the view of the motor vehicle trade. The finance ministry in a report issued under country’s fiscal responsibility law in February said excise taxes on motor […]

Mar 03, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Colombo Dockyard, a listed ship builder, said it will deliver six vessels this year and will focus more on offshore work with the search for oil off the island’s north-west coast. More than half the yard’s business comes from India. Nakauchi also said exploration for oil and gas […]

March 01, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lankan ship builder Colombo Dockyard said net profit for the 2009 financial year rose by almost half although they fell in the December quarter as ship repair revenue came down. The yard, which is majority owned by Japan’s Onomichi Dockyard, said in a stock exchange filing that net profit […]

Feb 24, 2010 (LBO) – A fresh risk evaluation of Sri Lanka by London insurers, considered critical in attracting investors after the end of its ethnic war, has been delayed by elections, official involved in the matter said. London underwriters have reduced the risk rating after the 30-year ethnic war ended in May 2009, with […]

Feb 20, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s vehicle imports fell 4.1 percent October 2009 from a year earlier to 21,239 vehicles registered, with most categories showing a decline, according to official data. Dual purpose vehicles were down 58.8 percent to 1,039 and motor cycle imports were down 17.3 percent to 109,738. Import of goods transport […]

Feb 19, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lankan shippers facing rapidly rising freight rates are advised to try to negotiate long-term contracts with shipping lines, an industry official said. Increasing freight rates are a problem for us,” said Gehan Kuruppu, vice president of the Sri Lanka Shippers’ Council. Now rates are not holding even for one […]

Feb 17, 2010 (LBO) – Construction of a new deep-water container terminal to be built and run by the private sector in Colombo port is to start in the second quarter of this year, a Sri Lanka port official said. Colombo port’s cargo flows are also recovering as trade recovers from recession, Wickrama said. “Our […]

Feb 11, 2010 (LBO) – Cargo volumes at a Colombo port private container terminal in which John Keells Holdings has a big stake rose sharply in January, albeit from a low base the year before as trade recovers from recession. South Asia Gateway Terminals handled 162,890 TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent container Units) in January 2010, data […]