A surge of cargo has congested Colombo Port and spurred some container lines to skip the transshipment gateway, S&P Global said.
It said that on Friday (17) morning, the port had about 15 container ships waiting at anchor for berths, but the queue had fallen to 10 by Monday. Eight ships were being worked at the marine terminals.
“Terminal operations have been adversely affected due to high yard congestion, increased transshipment volumes, and unfavorable weather conditions,” global forwarder Kuehne+Nagel said in a report.
S&P Global said that industry sources confirming recent Colombo call omissions included the NIX (China-India Express) loop that Israeli liner Zim Integrated Shipping Services operates jointly with other intra-Asia operators.
Zim has also reportedly halted Indian bookings out of Colombo on the NIX.
Ocean Network Express (ONE) has, it said, quoting industry sources, issued a “Colombo skip” advisory for its intra-Asia “CIP” (China-India-Pakistan) string.
But, while incurring some delays, the top carriers serving Colombo, Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd, Mediterranean Shipping, and CMA CGM, have mostly kept their calls intact, seemingly thanks to priority handling.
Colombo logged volume peaks in August and September, 741,124 TEUs and 742,116 TEUs, respectively, marking monthly highs this year, according to industry sources.
Further, S&P Global said that Colombo terminals have been operating well above 80% capacity for some time, so any cargo influxes from diversions of regional trades and other geopolitical factors place heavy pressure on the infrastructure there.
A bout of heightened terminal delays in early 2025 sparked a large number of vessel omissions for Colombo. And the latest disruption comes despite the phase 1 launch of the Colombo West International Terminal, developed by India’s Adani Group, raising more questions over chronic inland capacity issues.
“Unlike at Indian ports, import cargo is not moved off-site at Colombo after landing,” said a Colombo port official to S&P Global. “So, if cargo is not picked up timely, terminals get choked up.”