- EIU highlights record port throughput, India’s growth, and strategic location as key drivers
- Becoming a major hub crucial for growth, boosting external stability, investor appeal
Sri Lanka could become a major player in transhipment by the end of the decade, providing a key engine for growth, further stabilising its external position, and generating opportunities for foreign investors, the Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) said.
The London-based firm, which provides business intelligence and market insights, said that amidst news dominated by US tariffs has been the increased success of Sri Lanka’s maritime service exports, as its ports handle record throughput volumes.
Moreover, it said that there are strong reasons to expect this to go from strength to strength over the medium term, including its role as a hub into rapidly-growing India, increased Asia-Middle East and Asia-Africa trade, planned capacity upgrades and a favourable geopolitical position.
“We’ve been advising clients that researching fundamentals will remain important as ever, allowing them to hunt out structural growth stories while others are paralysed by uncertainty,” EIU said.
It said that the emergence of Sri Lanka as a major transhipment player could not only prove a direct engine of growth to Sri Lanka itself but also a strong indirect benefit by strengthening and diversifying foreign exchange earnings, bolstering macroeconomic and financial stability.
“..we suspect this could be one of Asia's key positive stories over the coming years,” the EIU said.
According to a report by the Ministry of Transport, Highways, Ports, and Civil Aviation presented to Parliament in March, Colombo Port expects a total container handling of 7.76 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in 2025, with transhipment expected to cross 6.21 million TEUs.
The ministry said that it expects a base case of 7.76 million TEUs handled in 2025, with the high case at 9.49 million TEUs.
The total container handling in the first five months of 2025 stood at 3.26 million TEUs.
The ministry report said that the total container handling is expected to cross 10.57 million TEUs by 2030, with transhipment handling at 8.70 million TEUs.