Adani Ports rises on expanding its global footprint with West Container Terminal at Colombo Port

Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ), which is India’s largest private ports & logistics company as well as a key subsidiary of the diversified Adani Group announced on Monday that it has received a letter of intent from the Ministry of Ports & Shipping of Sri Lanka along with Sri Lanka Ports Authority for the development and operations of the west container terminal (WCT) in Colombo (Sri Lanka).  

APSEZ will be collaborating with John Keells Holdings PLC, Sri Lanka’s largest diversified conglomerate, and also with Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) as a part of the mandate. The WCT is planned to be developed on a build, operate and transfer basis for a period of 35 years as a public-private partnership. The quay length of WCT will be 1,400 metres alongside a depth of 20 metres, which will qualify it as a prime transhipment cargo destination to handle ultra-large container carriers.  

This project is expected to give a push to the WCT’s container handling capacity and further, help the company in leveraging Sri Lanka’s locational advantage as one of the world’s top strategic nodes along the busiest global transhipment route. This partnership has a significant network impact and is predicted to mutually benefit from the string of seven container terminals across 12 ports that Adani operates. These ports are operated along the Indian coastline handling an annual volume of over 6 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). 

The company is engaged in the business of developing, operating and maintaining the port as well as port-based related infrastructure facilities, including multi-product Special Economic Zone (SEZ).  

On Tuesday, the share of APSEZ rose by 1.02 per cent, trading at Rs 726.40 on BSE.