The Sri Lanka Ports Authority will launch a long-delayed logistics hub within the next two to three months, incorporating free-zone and bonded warehousing and opening a new channel for foreign direct investment, SLPA Chairman Dr. Parakrama Dissanayake said.
Speaking at the 9th Annual General Meeting of the Sri Lanka Association of NVOCC Agents on Thursday, 10 September, he said the facility would let investors establish warehousing and logistics operations around the Port of Colombo, the Daily FT reported.
“We have been a transshipment hub for 40 years, but we have never had a proper logistics hub of scale,” he said.
Throughput is closing on installed capacity
Container volumes rose about 12% in the first half of 2026, putting the port on course for close to 9 million TEUs this year — a level at which, Dissanayake said, operational strain becomes evident. The SLPA is targeting an additional 1.5 million TEUs of capacity by end-2027.
The 12% matches the 11.9% first-half growth that lifted Colombo six places to 20th in the global rankings, on 4.44 million TEUs against 3.97 million a year earlier. Against the roughly 10 million TEUs of installed capacity the chairman cited in May, a full year near 9 million implies utilisation around 90% — which is what “strain” means in practice.
The 1.5 million figure sits awkwardly beside May’s numbers
This is the same hub the SLPA was preparing to put to market four months ago. In May, Dissanayake said the authority would shortly issue a Request for Expressions of Interest for a 14-acre logistics hub, within a pipeline he valued at about $2 billion. Neither account says whether that RFEOI closed, who responded, or whether an investor has been chosen — the gap between going to market and launching in three months.
The capacity target is harder to square. In May he trailed the East Container Terminal adding about 4 million TEUs on commissioning and West Container Terminal Phase II a further 3.3 million — some 7.3 million between them. Thursday’s target is 1.5 million by end-2027. The report does not say whether the smaller number is a near-term increment counted separately from those terminals or a sign their timelines have moved.
Carrier concentration, and a warning to the room
The expressway connection between port and airport is expected to open around October, cutting the journey to roughly 25 minutes and strengthening sea-air handling of cargo, particularly transshipment originating in Bangladesh. “These would be a game changer.”
That travel time has tightened in the telling. Reporting Dissanayake’s remarks to the German business forum in May, the Daily Mirror put the sea-air journey at “just 30 minutes.” Neither figure is sourced to the Road Development Authority, and no outlet notes the change.
But infrastructure alone will not address the shift facing freight forwarders and NVOCC operators — intermediaries who consolidate cargo and issue their own bills of lading without owning ships. Global container ship capacity has reached around 34.6 million TEUs, the ten largest lines controlling about 84.5% and the major alliances roughly two-thirds, on figures Dissanayake gave without attribution.
“This means freight forwarders and NVOCC agents are increasingly operating at the mercy of five major carriers, who now dictate deployment decisions and continue to add new capacity,” he said. A further 13 million TEUs is reportedly on order, and the lines have moved from operating vessels to selling whole supply chains — terminals, warehousing and end-to-end logistics forwarders do not hold.
In a second address he set out five priorities for the sector — resilience, digitalisation, sustainability, human capital and policy advocacy — warning that carbon footprint reporting for cargo could become standard before it is made mandatory. “The future will not belong to the biggest player. Neither will it belong to the cheapest. It will belong to those who can anticipate change.”
The tea example deserves a footnote
Dissanayake offered Ceylon Tea as his model of redundancy, saying the industry withstood the closure of the Strait of Hormuz by rerouting exports. The rerouting is real, but it was not costless: July tea exports fell 15% to 20.41 million kilograms, with every major category except instant tea shipping less. Tea found other routes; it has not recovered the volume.
Not reported
The report gives no location, cost or investor for the hub, and does not say whether “FDI-backed” describes a committed investor or an intended one. It does not state what the 1.5 million TEUs consists of, and the October expressway opening is attributed to expectation rather than to the Road Development Authority.
