If not for the financial loss of Hambantota Port the Sri Lanka Port Authority (SLPA) would have made a profit of Rs15 billion in 2016, said SLPA Managing Director Sarathkumara Premachandra. Last year the SLPA made a net profit Rs 10 billion after tax.
Speaking at the annual general meeting of the Sri Lanka Association of Non-Vessel Operating Container Carrier (NVOCC) on Friday he said that this was an 83% increase over previous year in spite of Jaya Container Terminal (JCT) losing 100,000 TEU to competition. “JCT in spite of all the other developments was the breadwinner of the SLPA earning over 60% of its total revenue,” he said.
SLPA’s total revenue in 2016 was Rs 44 billion whilst the Royalty revenue from the two private terminals amounted to approximately Rs 2 billion which is 4.5% of the total revenue.The reason for this success was the controlling of costs closing down some of the unproductive units. “We improved productivity of JCT thus reduced its costs. “Thanks to the South Harbour we handled larger ships and earned higher revenue from navigation services. Every TEU that went to private terminals gave us a revenue share of few dollars per TEU,”he said.
Premachandra also said that they turned around the Trinco port from red to green after two decades while profit of the Galle Port too moved up. All ports other than port of Hambantota made profits. The losses of the Hambantota Port amounted to Rs 4.36 billion.
The Colombo Port achieved a 10.6 % growth handling over a half a million TEU of additional volume last year. “This trend continues today still retaining over a 6.8% growth,” he said.
He also predicted that SLPA does not expect Hambantota to make profits in the short term.
Looking back he said that since 1982 where Colombo which was a minor port that was handling feeders for Singapore without even a properly equipped container terminal has transformed itself to a hub that can cater to any container ship that sails in the high seas. “It has been rated as the 23rd among the world’s top container ports,” he said.
The managements and professionals of SLPA over the last four decades have selflessly worked to nurture the development with the guidance and assistance of successive governments and ministries.
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