Colombo International Container Terminals (CICT) handled 2.9 million teus last year, an 8.6 per cent increase in its throughput and accounting for 40 per cent of the volume of the Port of Colombo in the 12 months ending December 31, 2019.
The company, which manages the Colombo South Terminal, said its 2019 performance represented a four-fold or 322 per cent growth over the past five years, from 686,639 teus handled in 2014.
CICT’s performance helped the Port of Colombo increase its total throughput by 2.6 per cent in 2019, despite the slower growth of maritime transport in the region.
Announcing the year’s final volume, a CICT official said ULCCs (Ultra Large Container Carriers) of a size that only CICT is capable of handling, had contributed approximately 72 per cent to the volumes the terminal achieved for the year.
“We believe that our unwavering commitment to efficiency and other key performance indicators coupled with our deep water capacity enabled us to grow faster than some of the other terminals in the region,” CICT CEO Jack Huang said. “True to our mandate, we continue to explore ways of maximising capacity use to generate growth for the Port of Colombo,” he said.
CICT commissioned an advanced, Dangerous Goods Storage Facility (DGSF) in 2019 with an investment of US$ 1.5 million and also completed the addition of two new mega Quay Gantry Cranes (QGCs), six new Rubber-tyred Gantry Cranes (RTGs) and 12 Prime Movers to enable the handling of over 22,000 TEU vessels.
