Category: Shipping and Transport

Dec 21, 2009 (LBO) – A highway to Sri Lanka’s north is seeing free movement of people and goods for the first time in decades after the final restrictions on traffic were removed from Monday.Following a ceasefire with the Tigers in 2002, the road was opened but the Tigers collected tax on goods moving along […]

Dec 14, 2009 (LBO) – Container volumes at a Colombo port terminal controlled by Sri Lanka’s John Keells Holdings have almost reached last year’s levels but those at the state-run facility are still lagging behind, latest figures show. The November 2009 volumes at South Asia Gateway Terminals (SAGT) were up 10.4 percent to 153,793 TEUs […]

Dec 11, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Colombo port stands to gain more container transhipment business with Maersk, the world biggest container shipping line by volume, deciding to stop direct calls at Chennai, officials said.Maersk Lines’ parent A P Moller-Maersk has reported a loss of 778 million dollars for the first nine months of the […]

Dec 07, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is sending a team of shipping and navy officials for talks with London underwriters to get the island off the war risk insurance rating list, shipping officials said. The team would seek a fresh risk evaluation following the end of the ethnic war and removal of the island […]

Dec 07, 2009 (LBO) – A US decision to extend the deadline for scanning all containers entering the country will afford relief to Sri Lankan exporters who had been concerned it would cause delays and raise costs.A new report by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) said the Customs and Border Protection has made relatively […]

Nov 30, 2009 (LBO) – A new port being built in Hambantota in southern Sri Lanka will use renewable energy for some of its power requirements, Sri Lanka Ports Authority chairman Priyath Wickrama said.“This is going to be green port,” he said. “We’re going to use solar power for all street lighting.It will be an […]

Nov 27, 2009 (LBO) – The Sri Lanka Ports Authority will issue a request for proposals for investments in a new port being built in the island’s southern Hambantota region by the second week of December, an official said.SLPA chairman Priyath Wickrama said business opportunities in the new port range from cement grinding and bagging, […]

Nov 24, 2009 (LBO) – Vehicle imports to Sri Lanka in August 2009, measured by the total number of new registration of motor vehicles, fell 22.2 percent to 16,293 from a year ago, latest official data showed. The government lifted restrictions imposed towards the end of 2008 on import letters of credit for vehicles, amid […]

Nov 24, 2009 (LBO) – A price war among Sri Lankan bunker suppliers in Colombo port is intensifying with some firms saying prices have fallen below cost to loss-making levels.Sri Lankan bunker suppliers said prices have come down sharply since the market was opened up and more suppliers came in with the price difference between […]

Nov 24, 2009 (LBO) – The European Union (EU) said repairs to a key road linking Sri Lanka’s south with the east that was damaged by a tsunami had been completed with EU and Asian Development Bank aid. The 158-kilometer stretch of the southern coastal road linking the southern Matara town with Wellawaya towards the […]

Nov 23, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Colombo Dockyard said it was getting ready to deliver a passenger craft built for an Indian customer by year’s end and that its repair business had shifted to focus on specialised vessels from tankers.The yard, which books profits on vessel delivery, said in a statement it was preparing […]

Nov 23, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lankan shippers are confronted with an increase in transportation costs to and from their markets with loss-making global carriers raising freight rates or announcing rate hikes from next year to restore profitability.Some lines have also withdrawn vessels and services to and from the region and introduced ‘slow steaming’ in […]