Hambantota International Port Group says the return of container shipping to the Red Sea and Suez Canal will create growth opportunities rather than take business away, EconomyNext reported on Thursday.

The claim is worth examining, because Hambantota’s container business exists largely as a product of that corridor being closed.

How the container business started

Bindu Ranasinghe, HIPG’s General Manager for Commercial and Marketing, is explicit about the origin:

“The Red Sea disruption advanced our container project. Congestion in Colombo Port created a requirement for additional capacity, and we began accommodating overflow cargo with the resources available to us in April 2024. That experience encouraged us to proceed with a full-scale operation and further investment.”

Hambantota began its first MSC container transshipment service in April 2024 and has since committed US$149 million to new container-handling equipment. The Chinese-built and operated southern port is preparing to lift annual container capacity to 2 million TEUs by the first quarter of 2027.

The prompt for this week’s comments is maritime consultancy Linerlytica’s October 2026 outlook, which forecasts a progressive return of container services to the Suez route.

The argument for why reopening helps

HIPG’s case rests on geography. Vessels avoiding the Red Sea round the Cape of Good Hope, a track that runs well south of Sri Lanka. The traditional Asia–Europe route does not.

“When vessels use the established East-West route through Suez, they pass much closer to Hambantota,” Ranasinghe said. “We have used the period of disruption to expand our capabilities, and a sustained return to that route would give us a stronger opportunity to attract business.”

More traffic through the corridor should mean more demand for bunkering, ship supplies and related marine services — the businesses Hambantota already runs.

HIPG is also trying to reduce its dependence on transshipment by building a gateway cargo base of Sri Lankan imports and exports. A planned container inspection centre and industrial development around the port are expected to support that from early 2027. “To attract more shipping lines and services, we also need gateway cargo,” Ranasinghe said.

The hedge in its own answer

The port operator does not claim the gains are secure. Improved access to Gulf ports could pull some cargo back to earlier arrangements. HIPG’s counter is that habits have set: “Shipping lines and their customers have established alternative arrangements, and those networks will not necessarily change immediately.”

That is a statement about inertia, not advantage — which is a narrower claim than the headline optimism suggests.

Context

Hambantota’s container push runs alongside its established vehicle business, which handled 167,569 vehicles in 19 months, and the one-million-TEU milestone recorded earlier this month.

Not reported

EconomyNext gives no current container throughput figure against which the 2 million TEU target can be judged, no timetable for the Linerlytica forecast’s return of services, and no indication of how much of Hambantota’s present volume is overflow from Colombo that would go back if Colombo’s congestion eased. How much of the $149 million has actually been spent is not stated.

No other verified newsroom had filed on these remarks when this article was written, so it rests on a single source.