ECONOMYNEXT – South Asia Gateway Terminals, a unit of Sri Lanka’s John Keells Holdings said it handled more than two million containers in 2024.

ECONOMYNEXT – South Asia Gateway Terminals, a unit of Sri Lanka’s John Keells Holdings said it handled more than two million containers in 2024, which was twice its original design capacity of 1.1 million boxes.

The terminal is able to handle two million twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs), due to the investments in technology and people, Chief Executive Romesh David said in a statement.

SAGT’s said the marine and other divisions of Sri Lanka Ports Authority internal and external providers of trucking and lashing services, have contributed to reaching the target.

The two million throughput has ranked SAGT among the best terminals in the world on the productivity indicator of TEU per Hectare of Yard, the firm said.

SAGT is planning to introduce a vehicle booking systemto improve truck turnaround times, which it says are already at globally competitive levels, and help to reduce congestion in the entire port.
The system will allow shippers, consignees, truck drivers and other port users to manage container movements to and track container status via a mobile app.

SAGT will also install Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology at the gate and quayside to speed up container processing.

SAGT said it had previously handled two million containers before the economic and Covid crises in 2018 and 2019.

Sri Lanka’s Colombo Port saw higher volumes amid a conflict in the Middle East which led.
(Colombo/Jan02/2024)