Category: Shipping and Transport

Aug 21, 2009 (LBO) – Mercantile Shipping Company, a listed company that once had Sri Lanka’s biggest fleet, has taken delivery of the first of a pair of new buildings it ordered built by a Dutch yard.The stock exchange filing showed a gross profit of 17 million rupees in international business in the June 2009 […]

Aug 20, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s United Motors Lanka (UMLL) made a 132 million-rupee loss in the June 2009 quarter as sales almost halved owing to weak orders from government ministries and the private sector. UMLL’s June quarter revenues plummeted 45.1 percent to almost 990 million rupees, while cost of sales dropped 50 percent […]

Aug 18, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lankan shippers face the prospect of an increase in transportation costs to export markets with loss-making global carriers beginning to raise freight rates in an effort to restore profitability.The line, which controls about 15 percent of the global container market, has also announced rate hikes on other trade routes. […]

Aug 15, 2009 (LBO) – Asian shippers meeting in Colombo said they would lobby governments in the region to reform laws to prevent price fixing by shipping lines acting like cartels which they said hurts export-based economies.Sri Lanka Shippers’ Council chairman Randolph Perera said the island lacked the laws to prevent anti-competitive practices by shipping […]

Aug 14, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lankan shippers said they hope a meeting of Asian shippers in Colombo would strengthen efforts to combat anti-competitive practices of shipping lines and called for government reforms to prevent unfair trade.Randolph Perera, chairman of the Sri Lanka Shippers’ Council (SLSC), said the Asian Shippers’ Council will campaign for eliminating […]

Aug 12, 2009 (LBO) – An international boat show to be held in the Maldive islands offers opportunities for Sri Lankan boat builders to cater to the archipelago’s transport requirements, officials said.Maldivian high commissioner Ali Hassen Didi said the water transport requirements of the country with 1,190 islands, almost 200 of them inhabited, were growing. […]

Aug 07, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state-run ports authority will seek a higher royalty from the sole bidder to operate a terminal at Colombo, while keeping open other options including re-tendering, an official said. The bid to build and operate a container terminal at an extension to Sri Lanka’s main port is half the […]

Aug 07, 2009 (LBO) – Container volumes rose again in July 2009 at a Colombo port terminal partly owned by John Keells Holdings whose transportation business has been hit by the trade slump and loss of a ship fuel monopoly. Relatively low margin transhipment traffic accounts for a growing proportion of SAGT’s total throughput, they […]

Aug 06, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s transport and logistics professionals are to form a ‘logistics directors’ forum’ that aims to get industry leaders together to work for common objectives, a senior official said. “The general impression we got from all of them was that logistics is a key area for the country which we […]

Aug 05, 2009 (LBO) – Global car carrier Höegh Autoliners has resumed calls at Colombo port, the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) said.A new port being built in southern Hambantota will have space fpr vehicle transhipment and assembly operations, he said. “We could see many lines arriving here for Ro-Ro (roll on-roll off) operations in […]

Aug 04, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Colombo Dockyard said it is getting more business in repairing offshore support vessels for the oil industry and has dedicated two docks for the work.Company officials said profit margins are higher on ship repairs as it involves more value addition and less material than in building new vessels. […]

Aug 04, 2009 (LBO) – A plan to move containers by rail in Sri Lanka and reduce congestion on roads has finally got moving with the state-owned railay making it a priority, a senior official said.“It is our number one priority in future plans,” said P P Wijesekera, General Manager of the Railways Department. “The […]