Business Shipping

‘Cargo Village’ to reduce congestion

Hiran H. Senewiratne

Colombo port, plans to build a dedicated cargo village to cater to rapidly increasing volumes of containers, a senior port official said.

“The Colombo port is runing out of space , therefore it needs to have a dedicated cargo village , said a senior officials of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA).

For this purpose it is earmarked a land with an extent of 27-acres to build the site near the port which is now occupied for housing by port employees. It will be connected to the port by a rail link and the employees will be given alternative housing close to that place.

The proposed cargo village will house all operations and authorities connected with port work like Customs, documentation services, cargo consolidation operations, vehicle park and storage area for refrigerated containers.

The cargo village will be a part of SLPA plans to expand Colombo port and make it more efficient. The SLPA plans to shift non-core operations out of the port to create more space for its main container handling work.

The SLPA has prepared a master plan for the port building in order to optimise use of available land in the face of booming cargo volumes and physical constraints,senior official said.

The port of Colombo, becoming a transhipment hub in the South Asian region, has found, its ability to expand landwise restricted by the city, which has grown around the harbour.

SLPA authorities recognised the need to expand urgently to cater to growing cargo volumes and increasing ship traffic and vessel sizes if Colombo wants to retain its position as a hub port in the region. It is said that there were more than 100 vessels of 10,000 TEU (Twenty foot Equivalent Unit or container).

Maersk calls to liberalise shipping sector

Hiran H. Seneviratne

Maersk, the world’s biggest shipping line and Colombo port’s top customer, advised the Government to further liberalise the sector for the island to become a logistics hub.

“Sri Lanka has the potential to capture regional business with the new developments in the sector. We need regulatory reforms and simplified customs and other procedures,” Maersk Lanka managing director, Eric Maard said.

It was organised by the Asian Development Bank, the Freight Forwarders’ Association and the Academy for International Trade and Transport.

He said that Colombo port has a great opportunity to become a strong logistics hub provided it acted fast to remove existing constraints,Maard said at a seminar on Sri Lanka’s prospects of becoming a logistics hub for the region.

He pointed to the key strengths of Singapore, one of Colombo main competitors, saying these include good infrastructure and connectivity, a fully liberalised and deregulated environment, and a critical mass of logistic professionals.

He said that Sri Lanka has the ability to become a logistic hub in the region. Therefore it should be able to connect to global markets as soon as possible to become a key player in the sector the country has to grow, provide employment and reduce poverty.

Colombo port needs to urgently expand capacity, improve productivity and ship turnaround times, cut red tape and doing business easier and quicker. A hub port’s geographical location was becoming less important, he noted, because of the growing importance of communications and web-based ways of doing business.

Sri Lanka needs to attract all aspects of business that makes a maritime and logistics hub. These include a wide range of services from banking and insurance, to crewing, ship management and chartering.

Sri Lankan shippers today enjoy good connections to their markets and comparatively lower freight rates because of the deregulation achieved more than 10 years ago.

The industry was partial liberalised for shipping in the early 1990s that created the basis for Colombo becoming a hub for the south Asian region,” Maard said. “If freight rates were controlled, none of this would have happened.”

He warned that government efforts to control the way shipping lines do business and interfere with market mechanisms like pricing would only serve to make the island less attractive for shipping lines.

“This does not mean I want a completely open society or to throw out ethics and good governance.” Maard said he supported the idea of Sri Lanka having a strong regulatory body attached to a dedicated shipping ministry.

CDL delivers fisheries protection craft for Maldives

CDL delivered a 35m Fisheries Protection Craft for the Maldives Coast Guard recently.

This craft would be deployed by the Maldives Coast Guard for Patrol duties and high speed interception. And also for the protection of the exclusive economic zone of the Republic of Maldives.

The Craft possesses good sea keeping qualities, high manoeuvrability and stability and shall be capable of prolonged offshore operations.

This Craft was secured by CDL pursuant to a comprehensive techno-commercial evaluation amongst many international contenders. The company is proud of the maldivian defence authority’s absolute reliance placed on CDL, counting on CDL’s experience and competencies, in awarding this prestigious contract.

The complete design including the hull was developed by Sri Lankan Design Engineers and the model test for hull performance was carried out at the University of Peradeniya. It was proved to be one of the best hulls in this range during the verification model testing carried out at the Krylov Institute in Russia.

This Craft was designed and built to prestigious Lloyd’s Classification Rules and carries the Class Notation LR + 100 A1 SSC Patrol Mono G2 LMC, when commissioned, and shall satisfy the needs of the Client and modern requirements in Shipbuilding.

All major machinery and equipment which is fitted onboard are from reputed manufacturers of state-of-then art marine machinery and equipment.

Rickmers crewing Conference successful

Rickmers, one of Germany’s largest shipping companies with headquarters located in Hamburg, arranged a successful Crewing Conference lasting one day at the Grand Oriental Hotel with 70 seafarers from the local areas.

The local representative is “Rickmers Marine Agency Lanka (Pvt) Ltd”.

This year on November, 19 we arranged the first Crewing Conference in Colombo. A number of speakers from the headquarters in Hamburg and Global Management Ltd, Cyprus lead through a varied program at the Grand Oriental Hotel in the heart of Colombo. A total of 70 officers and ratings took part at the event.

At the conference it has been pointed out that the interests of the Group is the education and training of their crew members.

Asian seafarers are playing a bigger role in securing of “new blood” and in the good and safe maintenance of our vessels. It has been focused that manning is not any longer a question of fulfilling budgets or running vessels but also a matter of trust and cooperation as well as the careful training of the seafarers.

A highlight of the events was to announce and honour the officers and the ratings with the longest service at Rickmers. The one day event ended in a strong and good discussion with a range of questions covering almost all matters affecting the seafarer’s life.