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CICT is owned and managed by China Merchants Holdings International Company Ltd. (CMHI), a high profile global terminal operator which has many ports operating under its belt in regions stretching from China to Africa, including investments which cover container terminals in Europe and the Mediterranean.
Presently, CICT is the only deep water terminal in the whole of South Asia, capable of handling the largest 18,000+teu ships which are already in service. CICT first hit the international spot light, when their container terminal construction period was reduced from the originally planned 60 months, down to 28 months.
From a global context, the port construction industry has a reputation of completing projects, way behind schedule, and running into delays of over two to three years. But CICT with the solid backing of their shareholders, CMHI and Sri Lanka Ports Authority, and their past experience, did just the opposite, by fast tracking the construction for completion in 28 months. Most importantly, this timing was to coincide with the introduction of the ultra-large-container--carriers (ULCCs) to the region, by the major global shipping lines.
This achievement on the construction side, made it possible for the Port of Colombo to be placed on the same league as other transhipment hubs such as Singapore, Tanjung Pelapas, Port Klang, Jebel Ali, Salalah, and Dubai, etc., much earlier than expected. Thereby the Port of Colombo was brought into the focus and attention of the major shipping lines which have all embarked on a massive spree of building ultra-large-container-carriers (ULCCs) with over 10,000+ teu capacity and having draughts of over 15+metres.
With CICT having an alongside water depth of 18 metres and the largest ever ship-to-shore quay cranes in the whole region, supported with the latest state-of-the-art terminal operating system, it was a matter of time before the major global carriers reviewed their service networks to include Colombo. The ‘relay’ operation which was carried out at CICT last week was a culmination of all these factors and events.
Transhipment volumes
Transhipment business is defined as the transfer of containers between a large mother vessel and a smaller feeder vessel. The Port of Colombo has built up a reputation of being a reliable and efficient transhipment hub in the Indian sub-continent, over the last two to three decades.
However, further development of the transhipment activities were curtailed due to capacity constraints within the Port of Colombo. This meant that the transhipment volumes, which should have economically gone via Colombo, were diverted through other competing hubs.
Relay volumes
Relay business is generally defined as the transfer of containers between two mainline vessels plying across the north/south and east/west routes and vice-versa, or on the same major haul service networks.
A natural evolution of a transhipment hub to being a major hub is the elevation to being able to attract relay volumes to complement existing transhipment volumes. This is a challenge that is no easy task by any means, especially when there is serious competition for the same volumes.
However, industry sources were of the view that this first ever major relay operation carried out by CICT will certainly put the Port of Colombo on the ‘relay’ map of major carriers in the near future.
Commenting on this major operation and record achievement, Tissa Wickramasinghe, General Manager Marketing and Head of Commercial at CICT, said this challenging operation consisted of handling a total of 19,449 container moves from four different main line vessels, giving a throughput of 28,898 teus. The whole operation had to be carried out within very strictly set time frames, in order that the four ships could resume their onward voyages on schedule.
He emphasised that credit must go to the Local Agent of Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), the world’s second largest container shipping line, MSC Lanka Ltd., which promoted and coordinated this whole operation with its global central planning offices.
With MSC being a direct contracted customer of both CICT and the Government-owned JCT terminal, the operations of the four vessels were well coordinated in such manner as to reduce the total port, and operation time at both terminals.
Successful operation
He said that from an operational perspective, an important plus point was that the inter-terminal-trucking operation for this relay operation was totally eliminated by way of optimising loading at both terminals. Thereby the environmental impact by way of sound and air pollution due to trucking operations between terminals was also eliminated. It was a classic operation which was very successfully completed and MSC Geneva was quick to acknowledge the final results achieved.
It is expected that Port of Colombo will continue to benefit from such operations in the future. CICT also highlighted the fact that being a terminal that has been in operation for a very short period of just over six months, this achievement speaks volumes for the skills, dedication and commitment of all its employees, and was confident that other shipping lines would soon follow in developing ‘relay’ volumes over Colombo.
