A consortium-led by China Merchant Holdings may construct a new deepwater container terminal for Sri Lanka Ports Authority for which negotiations are in final stages, according to a report by Port Technology.
The new port has been necessitated to expand handling capacity and handle larger containerships being deployed on new routes. The new port would increase cargo handling capacity with the addition of three new terminals, Port Technology report added
Construction of the first new container terminal, expected to cost US $400 million, will start in the second quarter of this year on a build-operate-transfer basis, Wickrama said, speaking at a regional port forum in Bandung, Indonesia, earlier this month. Colombo port’s cargo flows are also recovering as trade recovers from recession, Wickrama said.
“Our target for 2010 is four million twenty-foot containers and we are quite confident that we can achieve this target without any difficulty. With the economic recovery in the last two months we experienced a rapid increase in volumes of nearly 20 percent compared to previous years,” he told Port Technology.
Source:commodityonline,March 10,2010;Image:Flickr,December 16,2009
