In amongst all the excitement about the emergence of Colombo as a major port, particularly for transshipment, it is sometimes overlooked that Sri Lanka has two other significant ports, Hambantota on the country’s southern coast and Triconmalee on its east coast.

Both are large facilities, but they are marking out their patches differently, and did so at the Colombo International Maritime Convention 2016.

Triconmalee has profound advantages. It has one of the largest natural harbours in the world, with a water area of 400 acres. Making this area even more tempting in the eyes of shippers and shipping lines is its depth: 20 metres at the inner anchorage and 30 metres at the outer anchorage.

On top of that, nothing has been done in the surrounding area, which suffers from high unemployment – which makes it ideal for cheap labour.

The kicker, though, is not what Triconmalee is, but in what is around Triconmalee. Draw an arc around it and you’ll find India’s east coast, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Malaysia and Indonesia, which means Triconmalee faces some 1.9 billion people. “Literally 25% of the world’s population,” said Mahesh Kurukulasuriya, managing director of GAC Group Sri Lanka.

Not bad for a port known to be without ships and with only 4% of the throughput of Colombo.

Triconmalee is not chasing the transhipment business just yet. Instead, its immediate opportunity might be in other sectors, such as bulk transhipments. “Already there are a lot of enquiries about this,” Kurukulasuriya told the conference.

Another short-term market he flagged is locally produced phosphates. “You can also capture some of the local volumes,” he added. Longer term, though, Kurukulasuriya suggested the port does have a role as a gateway for Southern India.

This has not gone unnoticed by the Sri Lankan government, with no less a figure than the prime minister telling the CIMC of its “tremendous capacity” for the Bay of Bengal.

By contrast, Hambantota has an established profile – but maybe not for reasons it likes to remember. A joint venture with the Chinese there has seen disputes, and at one point in its recent past, Sri Lankan prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe referred to the port as “the biggest swimming pool in the world” because there was so little traffic.

All that could be on the verge of changing for Hambantota, with its first private sector investment by LAUGFS Holdings, an LPG import, storage and re-export firm which is putting in a terminal. Wickremesinghe has dropped the jokes and is now a serious supporter, telling CIMC the port, and a planned airport, will be developed on a private public partnership (PPP) basis.

“Through this terminal, we will be expecting US$1.3 billion in exporting energy,” said LAUGFS chairman W.K.H. Wegapitiya. “Sri Lanka will become a leading energy re-exporter and energy hub in Asia.”

Hambantota is an all-weather port, so there is no impact from the monsoons that can often delay port operations, and it has depth of 19 metres. This allows it to take VLGCs, but it also means the port can take large container carriers or VLCCs. More importantly still, it has brand new berthing facilities and free port status. “This is a strategic advantage,” said Wegapitiya.

It is also getting top-level support with Wickremesinghe telling CIMC that his government is “also talking to the Indians and the Japanese on how to develop this as a major port.”

Wegapitiya argues that LAUGFS investments at Hambantota will change the landscape of Sri Lanka’s maritime and energy industries. Even if it doesn’t, it still might have a role to play in changing Sri Lanka’s port industry.

By Michael Mackey

Southeast Asia Correspondent | Colombo