Sri Lanka’s Colombo Port has become another Asian container hub facing the pressure of supply chains squeezed by rerouted Middle East-bound containers.

Industry sources in Colombo who spoke with the Journal of Commerce said terminal operations have been affected by yard congestion and associated delays in inter-terminal transfer (ITT) activity, which is an integral part of transshipment operations.

Colombo is a key intermediate port in South Asia, especially for Indian East Coast shippers historically relying on transshipment connections.

“Vessels are experiencing an average berthing delay of two to three days,” said an executive at a European liner who didn’t want to be identified. “Longer waits have a significant negative impact on our overall vessel operating costs.”

Additionally, seasonal weather patterns along the Sri Lankan coast are posing operational challenges for carriers striving to keep their Colombo sailings on schedule.

The bottlenecks have left some carriers announcing last-minute terminal changes for their regular service calls in Colombo.

For example, the Gemini Cooperation has declared that its current week westbound and eastbound calls on the South India-Europe service known as the ME2 for Maersk and the IEX for Hapag-Lloyd will call Colombo’s South Asia Gateway Terminal (SAGT) instead of using the fixed-day berthing windows at the Colombo West International Terminal (CWIT).

Adani Ports-managed CWIT opened to business in April 2025 with an ad-hoc Gemini network call.

Colombo volumes up 20% since war began
Maersk declined to comment on the vessel flow disruption at Colombo, which has seen volume gains of 20% since the Middle East war began on Feb. 28, rising from 636,084 TEUs in February to 736,094 TEUs in March and 761,096 TEUs in April, according to available data.

The disruptive impact of unexpected transshipment volumes on port flows is widespread in the region as carriers diverted vessels away from the war zone. India’s busiest container hubs of Nhava Sheva and Mundra have been plagued by clogged yards and considerable gate activity slowdowns over the past month, an issue that continues to raise alarm bells through supply chain stakeholders and government circles.

Responding to fresh government directives, Nhava Sheva is now pushing rail evacuations and green channel operations to ease freight delays, while the Indian Ports Association (IPA) is set to conduct an audit to measure the scale of yard congestion at the port.

Source: Journal of Commerce

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