ECONOMYNEXT \u00a0\u2013 The Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) will seek a private partner through competitive bidding to build a new logistics hub at the Port of Colombo, after scrapping an earlier 280 million US dollar joint venture with China Merchants Port Holdings and Access Engineering PLC.<\/p>\n
The earlier project was formed in 2023 under South Asia Commercial and Logistics Hub (SACLH), with China Merchants holding a 70 percent stake, while the SLPA and Access Engineering held 15 percent each. <\/p>\n
The consortium planned to build a 150,000-square-metre modern logistics complex. <\/p>\n
However, following a review of external circumstances, commercial considerations, and shareholder interests, the parties decided to discontinue the venture. <\/p>\n
As part of the exit arrangement, approximately 29.8 million US dollars in equity contributions will be refunded to the three shareholders in proportion to their stakes.<\/p>\n
The port authority emphasized that walking away from the joint venture does not mean it is abandoning logistics infrastructure.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe decision not to proceed with the earlier joint venture does not represent a departure from its commitment to logistics infrastructure development. Rather, it provides an opportunity to pursue an alternative development model,\u201d the SLPA said.<\/p>\n
The authority will now launch an open competitive bidding process to set up the facility under a Public\u2013Private Partnership (PPP) model, subject to relevant approvals. <\/p>\n
The project will utilize a large land area inside the port to host integrated, value-added logistics services, bring in private investment, and earn long-term revenue.<\/p>\n
Officials said the hub will help transform Colombo from purely a container transshipment terminal into a full maritime center, serving shipping lines, cargo owners, and logistics operators.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe SLPA remains firmly committed to positioning the Port of Colombo as a leading maritime, transshipment and logistics hub in South Asia, while ensuring that future port development initiatives are commercially viable,\u201d the SLPA said. \u00a0(Colombo\/Oct19\/2026)<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ECONOMYNEXT \u00a0\u2013 The Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) will seek a private partner through competitive bidding to build a new logistics hub at the Port of Colombo, after scrapping an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sripuwath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sripuwath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sripuwath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sripuwath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sripuwath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sripuwath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sripuwath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sripuwath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sripuwath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sripuwath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}