News / Congestion and delays continue at Colombo, post-cyclone shutdown

Colombo port © Viktor Karasev |

The aftermath of recent severe storms in Sri Lanka has left huge numbers of containers stranded at Colombo Port, causing heavy congestion in the harbour, according to local industry sources.

Cyclone Ditwah, said to be the deadliest to have hit Sri Lanka in recent years, forced authorities to shut port terminals for four days in late November, but the weather has continued to challenge normal operations at the busy container hub since the reopening, sources said.

“Vessel dockings had to be suspended for a few hours two days ago,” one Colombo terminal source told The Loadstar. “Vessels are calling off-schedule, so there is berthing disruption.”

Colombo terminals are also facing the pressure of high yard density, due to a pile-up of containers on the waterfront with the pace of inter-terminal transfers and import clearance considerably slowed.

Sri Lanka’s Container Transport Vehicle Owners’ Association (CTOA) complained that the disruption had left hundreds of trucks stranded on the dock for many days.

“The congestion has been caused by the influx of relief supplies, following the recent disaster situation, along with increased imports for the festive season,” CTOA said, adding that more effective steps were needed to be implemented swiftly to relieve the supply chain bottlenecks.

Colombo is a busy transhipment gateway in South Asia, but concerns over the congestion and delays – exacerbated by the adverse weather – have weighed on its performance.

Some mainline carriers serving the Indian subcontinent trades, including ONE, Zim and Hapag-Lloyd, have avoided calling at Colombo for some time, because of vessel turnaround delays and low transhipment volumes, sources said.

ONE’s PS3 service on the Asia-US west coast trade is among those Colombo omissions.

Forwarders are also warning Indian customers booking through Colombo of significant cargo rollover risks due to the congestion. One said: “Transhipment windows remain unreliable, particularly for long-haul connections. Avoid CMB routing for all time-sensitive or contract-critical cargo.”

But sources at South Asia Gateway Terminals (SAGT), Colombo’s second-busiest handler, shrugged off any serious operational issues.

“Yard inventory is within the capacity and operations are almost normal,” one executive said, but added: “But it is true that terminals are operating with sliding window schedules.”

Due to the disruption, Colombo suffered a significant drop in volumes last month – handling some 625,000 teu compared with 745,000 teu in October, data shows.

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan authorities have put out bid proposals for the selection of additional inland container depot operators to speed up customs clearance for import shipments at Colombo.