Hambantota International Port has become a transit point for luxury vehicles bound for the Middle East, as disruption around the Strait of Hormuz forces shippers to redraw their routes, Daily Mirror reported.
A senior Sri Lanka Customs official told the paper that vehicles from Japan, South Korea and Italy are being routed through Sri Lanka before onward shipment to Middle East destinations.
In the most recent consignment, 14 Lamborghinis arrived at Hambantota on Thursday. The cars were loaded into seven 40-foot containers and moved by road to Bandaranaike International Airport at Katunayake for air freight to Dubai and Doha. Daily Mirror put the value of the vehicles at between Rs. 100 million and Rs. 500 million each, depending on model.
Transshipment dominates port volumes
Official figures cited in the report show Hambantota handled 90,219 vehicles in June, a record monthly volume. Around 80 percent of the cargo the port handles is transshipment — goods passing through Sri Lanka rather than entering the domestic market. Vehicle transshipment continued through the period when vehicle imports into Sri Lanka were suspended.
A Customs official cautioned that the trade generates no import revenue for the department, because the vehicles are not cleared into the country. The benefit to Sri Lanka comes through port and logistics handling rather than duty.
A port official said the volume of vessels calling at Hambantota for transshipment has risen as the facility takes on a larger role in regional shipping.
The pattern follows earlier reporting that Middle East tensions have pushed cargo away from traditional routes. Sri Lankan ports have been picking up rerouted traffic as carriers avoid the Hormuz chokepoint — the same regional disruption that has pushed the Panama Canal and other corridors into capacity management elsewhere in the global shipping network.
