100th ship to dock at Hambantota

Hambantota Mahinda Rajapaksa International Port is expecting the 100th ship to dock in the harbour in few weeks. A Sri Lanka Ports Authority spokesman said the 93rd ship, a vehicle transporter, arrived in the port last week.

The ship, transporting vehicles from Dubai, unloaded 62 vehicles at Hambantota for transshipment to Africa. He said the yards are full of vehicles due to the large number of vehicle carriers arriving in the harbour.

Since its opening in June 2012, the Chinese-built Port has operated as a successful automobile transshipment centre.

In the last six months of the past year the port handled nearly 4,500 transshipment units from 31 vehicle carriers.

Meanwhile, construction work on the oil tank farm and the oil terminal at the Hambantota Port has now been completed and the testing of the oil tank farm has begun. Once testing is completed, the port will be available for bunkering operations.