Colombo Port pulled off nothing short of a maritime masterstroke in early 2025 when the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) recorded a whopping 66% increase in half-year profit. The profit increased from Rs. 14,691 million in the January–June quarter of 2024 to Rs. 24,418 million in the corresponding quarter this year, highlighting the port’s new commercial virility.
Under the bottom-line bonanza is a thriving quay: well over 4 million Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) were processed in the first half of 2025, and the latest estimates are that Colombo can surpass the 8 million-TEU milestone by December—a mark that would further solidify its place among Asia‘s premier logistics ports. To put that into perspective, the port handled some 7.7 million TEUs in the calendar year 2024, a record high during the period that paved the way for this year’s stratospheric boom.
A Hot Streak on the World Stage
Colombo has received numerous awards for its performance. In Q1 2024, Alphaliner announced it as the world’s fastest-growing port with a scorching 23.6% growth rate that bested all other leading terminals worldwide. Meanwhile, the World Bank Container Port Performance Index places Colombo at the 40th rank among the world’s busiest container gateways, a commendable ranking for a transshipment hub situated in a strategic location.
Geography and Opportunity
Colombo’s ascendance is not an accident. Situated at the intersection of the East–West shipping routes—only one day aside for ships going around the Malacca Strait or the Cape of Good Hope—the port captures valuable transshipment commerce along the leg between Asian and Middle Eastern hub ports. The advantageous geography, along with a set of state-of-the-art berth facilities, explains why container giants choose Colombo as their turnback point.
Phased Expansion Drives Future Growth
Upgrades to the infrastructure are humming across the port’s sprawling 1,000-acre facility. Year-end completion of phase 2 of the East Container Terminal is in the pipeline, with the addition of automated handling capacity that will provide faster vessel turnaround times. The Jaya Container Terminal’s Phase 5 will be ready in 2025, and earthworks for Phase 2 of the West Container Terminal, a project that will increase the capacity of the terminal by more than 600,000 TEUs per year, are already under way. In the longer term, the ambitious Colombo North Port development is hoping to double the harbour’s potential throughput within this decade and establish it as a hub of the South Asian supply chain.
Economic Ripple Effects
These harbour investments are not just civil-engineering marvels; they’re drivers of national prosperity. The SLPA bonanza swells the government coffers, funds the growth of inland logistics parks, and risks triggering ancillary industries—anything ranging from trucking companies to cold-chain operators—living off the port boom. Sri Lanka’s export-import economy increasingly relies on the booming Colombo Port, which has dividend-spilling effects that extend to the rest of the island.
Steering a Competitive Course
While the shipping alliances of the world divert to skirt bottlenecks and chase cost reductions, Colombo’s strong performance numbers and vision-based growth plans render it the market standard. With profitability increasing, throughput increasing, and the arrival of world-class terminals, the Port of Colombo is poised to accelerate into the second half of 2025, solidifying its position as the leading maritime gateway in South Asia.
