The Red Sea crisis has drastically impacted the transhipment volumes being moved at Colombo Port. As reported by the Daily Mirror, the transhipment volumes have declined to single digits in April 2024, after experiencing double digit growth during the initial four months.
In April, the transhipment volumes moved by the port recorded a growth of just 8.1 percent year-on-year (YoY) to 525,936 TEUs, posting the lowest growth rate since November last year.
However, in terms of overall container throughput, the transhipment hub recorded a growth of 10.2 percent YoY to 626,926 TEUs, with rising imports.
In April, the import container (laden) volumes were up by 22.7 percent YoY to 36,457 TEUs, while the export container (laden) volumes rose by 6.6 percent YoY to 21,816 TEUs.
Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT), handled 268,513 TEUs during the year, a growth of 7.8 percent over the previous year. Jaya Container Terminal (JCT) and its partially operational East Container Terminal (ECT) together handled 184,286 TEUs in April, recording 3 percent YoY growth. South Asia Gateway Terminal (SAGT) container volumes also grew by 23.5 percent YoY to 174,130 TEUs in the month.