Colombo Port promoted to world's 27th port

At a time the whole world is facing an economic downturn, the report 'Top 30 Container Ports in the World in 2008' published in the magazine 'Containerization International' recently, has placed Colombo Port in the 27th place among the best container ports of the world in 2008.

This is due to the resulted achievement by the Port of Colombo maintaining a growth of handling 0.31 million of TEUs in 2008, compared to 2007. In the year 2007 the Port of Colombo handled a total of 3.38 million TEUs and in the year 2008 it has been increased up to a total handling of 3.69 TEUs, a growth of 9.1%.

Regional and other global ports such as Kaohsiung in Taiwan, Hamburg in Germany, Los Angeles, Long Beach and New York in the US and Dallan in China have shown only a negative growth during 2008 and have also lost their previous higher positions in the list of ranking. Although the global port such as Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Busan, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Port Tanjung Pelepas, Xiaman, Tokyo, Tanjung Priok, Jawaharlal Nehru, Yokohama and Gioia Tauro have shown positive growth rates in the world ranking, they have all maintained a lower rate of growth compared to the Port of Colombo in 2008. Only eight ports including Dubai, Ningbo-Zhoushan, Gungzhou, Tianjin, Port Klang, Bremen, Laem Chabang and Valencia have been able to exceed their growth rates against the growth rate of 9.1% of the Port of Colombo in 2008.

Hence, the leading first five ports namely Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Busan that have positive growth rates in this ranking list have also been unable to exceed the growth rate of 9.1% maintained by the Port of Colombo.

Compared to these results all achievements acquired by the Port of Colombo under such pressurized world economic conditions are the results of long term contributions and dedications through a collective effort and team work of its human resource. Under the able guidance of Port and Aviation Minister Chamal Rajapaksa, recent measures taken to elevate the efficiency of human resource and other mechanisms implemented at Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) and necessary steps taken to obtain new technology and necessary operating gear and equipments have been directly resulted in the elevation of the TEU handling capacities successfully, in the Port of Colombo.

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