Domestic cargo growth lifts Colombo Port volumes

TOTAL container volumes handled by the Colombo Port rose 7.1% year-on-year (YoY) to 6.92 million Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) in the first 10 months of 2025, supported by a strong expansion in domestic container traffic, even as transhipment activity continued to account for the bulk of throughput and remain central to Colombo's regional hub role, data released by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) showed.

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Transhipment container volumes increased 5.1% YoY to 5.52 million TEUS during the January-October period, up from 5.25 million TEUs a year earlier. Despite the more moderate pace of growth, transhipment continued to dominate port activity, accounting for close to four-fifths of total container throughput.

Domestic container volumes, however, recorded a sharper expansion, rising 13.9% YoY to 1.1 million TEUS in the first 10 months of 2025, compared to 0.96 million TEUS in the corresponding period of 2024.