South Asia 'shining star' of container world with 5.3pc growth
SOUTH Asia region has been identified by London's Drewry Maritime Research as the "shining light" in an otherwise bleak international container shipping market, reports London's Loadstar.
South Asia/Indian subcontinent saw container throughput gain 5.3 per cent in the first three months of this year, compared with the same period of 2015, said the Drewry report.
This comes against a background of global year-on-year growth of 0.5 per cent in the first quarter coming off a one per cent annual increase in 2015.
Thus, South Asia was up 10 times more with the highest score in world, without which, feeble gains in the global average would have been erased.
All of the major South Asian nations contributed to the increased first quarter container throughput of 22 million TEU.
Indian port box throughput was up year-on-year by 234,000 TEU in the quarter; Pakistan's volumes were 274,000 TEU ahead and Bangladesh grew by 324,000 TEU in the period.
This includes empties. But it was transshipment volume increases which led to the throughput spike, said Drewry.
"Lagging port infrastructure meant container lines preferred to base their hub and spoke networks in the Middle East and South-east Asia, but the development of Colombo as a viable hub following the end of the civil war in 2009 has boosted the South Asia TEU count, " said Drewry.
Colombo's establishment as a genuine hub port coincided with the opening of the Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT) at the South Harbour facility in 2013, which offers a 20-metre access channel for the largest container vessels afloat.
Colombo has now become a key east-west hub, handling 75 per cent of all transshipments to other countries in the region notes Drewry, and has especially benefited from the current export garment boom enjoyed by the region.
Indeed, aided by some "very competitive transshipment tariffs" the facility attracted a further 144,000 TEU of traffic in the first quarter of this year, gaining 11.5 per cent on the same period of 2015, said Drewry.
And with several new deepwater port developments in the pipeline across South Asia, the region is primed to attract more direct services.
"With dynamic economies and big investment in port infrastructure South Asia's importance to the container market will continue to grow," it said.
SOUTH Asia region has been identified by London's Drewry Maritime Research as the "shining light" in an otherwise bleak international container shipping market, reports London's Loadstar.
South Asia/Indian subcontinent saw container throughput gain 5.3 per cent in the first three months of this year, compared with the same period of 2015, said the Drewry report.
This comes against a background of global year-on-year growth of 0.5 per cent in the first quarter coming off a one per cent annual increase in 2015.
Thus, South Asia was up 10 times more with the highest score in world, without which, feeble gains in the global average would have been erased.
All of the major South Asian nations contributed to the increased first quarter container throughput of 22 million TEU.
Indian port box throughput was up year-on-year by 234,000 TEU in the quarter; Pakistan's volumes were 274,000 TEU ahead and Bangladesh grew by 324,000 TEU in the period.
This includes empties. But it was transshipment volume increases which led to the throughput spike, said Drewry.
"Lagging port infrastructure meant container lines preferred to base their hub and spoke networks in the Middle East and South-east Asia, but the development of Colombo as a viable hub following the end of the civil war in 2009 has boosted the South Asia TEU count, " said Drewry.
Colombo's establishment as a genuine hub port coincided with the opening of the Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT) at the South Harbour facility in 2013, which offers a 20-metre access channel for the largest container vessels afloat.
Colombo has now become a key east-west hub, handling 75 per cent of all transshipments to other countries in the region notes Drewry, and has especially benefited from the current export garment boom enjoyed by the region.
Indeed, aided by some "very competitive transshipment tariffs" the facility attracted a further 144,000 TEU of traffic in the first quarter of this year, gaining 11.5 per cent on the same period of 2015, said Drewry.
And with several new deepwater port developments in the pipeline across South Asia, the region is primed to attract more direct services.
"With dynamic economies and big investment in port infrastructure South Asia's importance to the container market will continue to grow," it said.