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 (twenty-foot equivalent units or containers) from the same month in 2008, after dipping in October, according to SAGT figures. Analysts said it was the private terminal's strongest monthly percentage increase growth in volumes from a year ago in the past 12 months.
SAGT's container volumes had dipped 3.6 percent in October from a year ago, its first fall after growing for five straight months.
The terminal's container volumes have been growing this year despite an overall slump in cargo volumes at Colombo port this year because of the global economic downturn.
JKH's transportation business, mainly the SAGT container terminal and its Lanka Marina Services ship fuel business, have been the main contributors to the group's bottom line in recent quarters.
But much of SAGT's growth in the container business has come from transshipment cargo which yield relatively low margins compared with export-import boxes.
Colombo is south Asia's hub port, where cargo is shipped on feeder vessels to and from smaller ports in the Indian sub-continent on to mainline vessels plying the main East-West trade route.
source - http://www.lbo.lk/
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