ECONOMYNEXT – Colombo West International Terminal, backed by India’s Adani Ports and Sri Lanka’s John Keells Holdings is off to a ‘spectacular’ start with volumes growing faster than new terminals can usually expect, Chief Executive Munish Kanwar said.
The first two berths of the three-berth terminal is now in operation with eight ship-to-shore (STS) cranes which can take in two large big container vessels or one big and two smaller vessels.
Fast Growth
“We declared that we started a commercial operation in April this year and within a span of four months – which probably is a global record – we have reached to a throughput of more than 100,000 TEUs,” Kanwar says.
“So, the growth has been spectacular. So has been the growth in productivity and efficiencies.
“Within a span of six, seven months, we have been able to reach 22, 23 moves per hour. And by the end of this financial year, the target is to exceed that 25 number.”
“So, the growth has been spectacular. So has been the growth in productivity and efficiencies.
“Within a span of six, seven months, we have been able to reach 22, 23 moves per hour. And by the end of this financial year, the target is to exceed that 25 number.
“With our kind of expertise, with the kind of automation we have, we target to end up somewhere around 28 to 30 moves an hour when we fully mature.”
CWIT has been able to attract some of the most schedule conscious services, including Gemini Corporation, a collaboration between Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk.
Fly-By-Wire
At the CWIT there are no lonely operators in a cramped cabin on top of the cranes as in the past.
They are in spacious air-conditioned control room in front of visual displays, deftly plucking containers off ships, using joy ticks in practiced moves, as one might pick up an object with a tweezer.
About 20 percent of the youthful operational staff are women and there are plans to increase the share.
The Adani port in Vizhinjam, was the first automated container terminal in South Asia.
“Since there are no potential candidates with experience in automated terminals in Sri Lanka, at CWIT we partnered with universities to profile and recruit freshers, and gave them exposure and training at Adani terminals,” says Dhashma Karunaratne, Chief Commercial Officer at CWIT, who has taken a personal interest in increasing the female workforce.
“Even as I speak, ladies who were trained on yard cranes are now being upgraded to operate Ship-to-Shore cranes.
“We have ladies from diverse backgrounds, some are continuing the legacy of a parent who had served POC others are from varied disciplines, such as IT, Business and Logistics & transportation.”
Ahead of Schedule
Despite the Covid pandemic and Sri Lanka’s currency crisis, the project is on track to be completed ahead of schedule, Kanwar says.
The terminal now has eight Ship-to-Shore cranes, with 800 metres of the 1,400 meter quay length completed.
By December 2025 the balance 600 meters would be built. Six more STS cranes are expected by June-July 2026.
“Phase two is supposed to be completed by February 2027,” Kanwar says. “Looking at the speed of execution, we should be able to complete the full project by December 2026, which is almost three months in advance.”
With two berths in operation, the CWIT expects to end the year to March 2025 with 950,000 to 1,000,000 containers handled.
CWIT would bring about half the projected growth to 8.3 million TEUs from 7.8 million at the Port of Colombo this year as new volumes, Kanwar says.
Especially after the Red Sea crisis Colombo port is congested, and all terminals were operating above capacity. Some volumes may shift to CWIT.
Indian Driver
In three years the 3.2 million capacity of CWIT will be filled, Kanwar predicts, driven by transshipment. Both India and Bangladesh are growing their external trade.
“India is growing at 6 to 7 percent annually, both in terms of the GDP and also in terms of the container throughput,” Kanwar says.
“Port of Colombo is ranked probably 9th right now in terms of connectivity, which makes it a proper hub and spoke model for a shipping line.
“Such proximity to the world trade corridor – connectivity with both the Eastern part and the Western part – and then the proximity to India makes it a very viable transshipment location.”
Though new terminals are coming up in India, they will not match the growth to 6 to 7 percent compound growth of Indian business. Last year alone India had done 25 million TEUs.
“Despite so many projects being alive, that annual capacity addition is not happening,” Kanwar says.
The Port of Colombo is “ideally placed, ideally located” to capture part of the business, he says, making a strong case for Adani to even invest more in Colombo.
In Sri Lanka exporters are now complaining of congestion and some ships by-passing Colombo amid berthing and internal delays. Kanwar says authorities are making efforts to solve the problem.
“With de-bottlenecking on the marine side improving inter terminal transfers Port of Colombo is idealy placed to do justice with the additional capacity which is coming,” he says.
“What I see in that the direction is good.”
Kanwar believes that CWIT joint venture partner John Keells, which invested in the first private terminal in Colombo has long term interest of the country going beyond short-term profits.
“They have invested here earlier also,” Kanwar says. “And the vision which we have is that we would want to support the overall master plan for Port of Colombo which may be 15 years from now, 20 years from now, would see capacity expansions in the ballpark of maybe Singapore.
“So they have a big expansion plan. We would definitely want to be associated with Port of Colombo and see the success story continues beyond WCT 1.” (Colombo/Nov11/2025)