Steep depreciation of rupee shoots up foreign loan interest cost of SLPA last year by 200 percent

The cost of foreign loan interest that the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) had to pay in 2022 increased by 200 percent compared to the previous year due to the depreciation of the Sri Lanka rupee, the SLPA’s 2022 Annual Report states.

However, the SLPA reported a net after tax profit of 42.3 billion rupees last year, compared to 20.7 billion rupees recorded in 2021, primarily due to the depreciating Sri Lankan rupee against the U.S. Dollar.

The SLPA Annual Report said the institution recorded an operating profit of 47.2 billion rupees in 2022, as against 24.9 billion rupees in the previous year. The gross revenue in 2022 was 99.1 billion rupees, compared to 60.6 billion rupees in 2021, which was an increase of 38.5 billion rupees. Total expenditure before tax, foreign loan interest and foreign exchange gain / loss was 43.7 billion rupees compared to 32.9 billion rupees in 2021, an increase of 33 percent. The SLPA terminals recorded 1,925,895 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs)) annual throughput in 2022 and maintained volumes without a significant drop despite industry drawbacks, the report said.

Average productivity of SLPA terminals recorded marginal improvement, while the productivity of mainline vessels reported 23.3 moves per hour (MPH) in 2022, which was a 2.6 percent improvement over the previous year. Feeder line vessels reported 20.99 MPH in 2022, an improvement of 4.9 percent over the previous year, it said.

With regard to the controversial East Container Terminal (ECT), which was initially to be given to Adani, The SLPA has already constructed a 600-meter quay wall and plans to build the balance of the 720-meter quay wall foundation to have 20-meter deep berths. The development of the ECT will be done in phases, with the goal of making it a fully-owned container terminal of SLPA by 2025. The ECT will have a 1320-meter-long quay that could accommodate three ultra-large container carriers, a yard area of 72 hectares, and an annual capacity of three million TEUs when completed. Plans are underway to semi-automate the ECT, complete with extra height and reach ship-to-shore (STS) automated Cranes, straddle carriers, and Automated Rail Mounted Gantries (ARMGs), the report said.

The tonnage-wise cargo handled at the Port of Colombo in 2022 decreased to 96 million tonnes, which is a decline of 7.4% compared to the 103 million tonnes handled in 2021. In terms of the performance of other ports, 323 ships arrived at the Port of Hambantota, with a decrease of 5.9 percent in cargo handling tonnage compared to 2021. However, vehicle handling at the Port of Hambantota increased by 13.1 percent. Meanwhile, the number of ships that arrived at the Port of Trincomalee decreased by 18.8 percent, with cargo handling tonnage declining by 34.3 percent compared to 2021, according to the report.