Sri Lanka is exploring a partnership with international shipping lines to expand capacity at the state-owned East Container Terminal at the Port of Colombo, and between five and six lines have already expressed interest, Port Minister Anura Karunathilaka has said.

“We are exploring a partnership with shipping lines. Already 5-6 shipping lines have expressed interest,” the minister told EconomyNext on Saturday, on the sidelines of a media briefing.

The process, and the timetable

Karunathilaka said the government must first obtain Cabinet approval and then call for expressions of interest. He said the government is working towards finalising an arrangement in the first half of next year.

That is a slower sequence than the interest level implies: no EOI is yet on the market, and the minister did not name any of the lines.

What is at stake

The ECT is a deep-water development inside the Port of Colombo, managed and operated by the state-owned Sri Lanka Ports Authority. It is built to handle Ultra-Large Container Vessels — ships carrying 18,000 to 22,000 TEUs.

Initial operations began with a 450-metre quay section and a stacking yard of roughly 260,000 square metres. On full expansion the terminal is projected to reach a quay wall of 1,320 metres with a draft of 18 to 20 metres, and annual capacity of 2.4 million to 3 million TEUs — enough to lift the Port of Colombo’s total capacity beyond 7 million TEUs.

Total investment in the development is estimated at US$500 million to US$600 million. Equipment planned includes 12 ship-to-shore Super-Post-Panamax quay cranes able to reach across 24-container-wide vessels, and 40 automated rail-mounted gantry cranes for the yard.

Why Colombo needs the berths

Transshipment accounts for roughly 75% to 80% of the Port of Colombo’s cargo volume, and India-bound or India-originated cargo makes up more than 70% of that transshipment traffic. The port sits on an Indian Ocean lane carrying over US$1 trillion in trade annually.

Colombo’s position is no longer unchallenged. EconomyNext framed the port as sharing South Asian transshipment with India’s Adani group, which now operates a transshipment terminal at Vizhinjam as well as one in Colombo.

Background

The ECT has been the subject of repeated investor disputes since Sri Lanka cancelled a tripartite development agreement with India and Japan in 2020. In May, Karunathilaka denied that any decision had been taken to privatise the terminal, saying no such proposal had reached Cabinet, the SLPA or the ministry, and that port workers and trade unions would be consulted before any strategic decision.

Investor appetite has been reinforced by volume growth — Colombo Port handled 761,096 TEUs in April, up 22% year-on-year — and the SLPA is separately opening an FDI-backed logistics hub.

Not reported

EconomyNext did not name the interested lines, and no other verified newsroom had carried the minister’s remarks at the time of writing. It is not stated whether the joint-venture route would involve the union consultation Karunathilaka promised in May, what stake the SLPA would retain, or whether the 2020 cancellation affects the eligibility of any prospective partner.