CICT voted Best Container Terminal in Asia for 3rd successive year

Beats terminals in China, Indonesia and Thailand to win coveted AFLAS award in Under 4 million TEUs category

The CMPort managed Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT), the only deep water terminal in the Port of Colombo, has been voted the Best Container Terminal in Asia in the Under 4 million TEUs category at the prestigious Asian Freight, Logistics and Supply Chain (AFLAS) Awards hosted and presented by Asia Cargo News.

This is the third consecutive year that CICT has won this award intended to honour organisations for demonstrating leadership as well as consistency in service quality, innovation, customer-relationship management and reliability.

The awards ceremony was held at the Asia Society Hong Kong Center, Hong Kong, following a nomination and voting process that allowed more than 15,000 readers of Asia Cargo News and e-news subscribers to first determine the leading companies in the market, and then select the winners, making the results the opinion of service users rather than a panel of judges.

To win the award in its category, CICT had to compete with the top eight shortlisted terminals nominated on the basis of criteria that were laid down by the publication and face a technical evaluation.

The evaluation process included asking readers of Asia Cargo News open-ended questions to nominate their preferred container terminals in 48 categories. Nominees had to adhere to criteria standards encompassing higher operational productivity, efficient turnaround of trucks delivering and picking up containers; provision of suitable container shipping-related infrastructure; cost competitiveness, customer service level and customer satisfaction; timely and adequate investment in new facilities to meet future demand;  innovative operating environment, facilitation of ancillary services and ease of doing business activities; and effective and easy-to-use IT systems.

The other three terminals among the top four in the Under 4 million TEUs category were DaChan Bay Terminals (China), Jakarta International Container Terminal (Indonesia), and Laem Chabang International Terminal (Thailand).

Commenting on CICT winning this award for the third consecutive year, the company’s CEO Mr Jack Huang said: “The award is a testament to CICT’s dedication to consistent delivery of high levels of service to the global shipping lines that use our terminal. It is through their votes that we have once again been bestowed this honour, and we pledge to maintain and exceed their expectations in the future. The commitment to excellence by members of ‘Team CICT’ warrants special mention, as it is their hard work that ultimately culminates in our achievements.”

The 2019 AFLAS Awards ceremony that was held in Hong Kong was attended by leading service providers including air and shipping lines; airports and seaports; logistics, third party logistics providers and other associated supply chain industry professionals representing every region and continent in the world.

Written by leading transport and cargo industry journalists, Asia Cargo News is a vital source of intelligence for cargo, logistics and supply chain companies located in and doing business in Asia. The newspaper includes a range of in-depth features, news and analysis designed to meet the information needs of industry decision-makers.

CICT is the first and currently the only deep water terminal in South Asia equipped with facilities to handle the largest vessels afloat. Since its inception in 2014, the terminal has incrementally grown the volume it has handled; from 686,639 teus in 2014, to 1.56 million teus in 2015, 2 million teus in 2016, 2.38 million teus in 2017 and 2.68 million teus in 2018.

In its last four full years of operation, CICT has brought some of the largest vessels plying the Asia-Europe routes to Colombo. Of these, Milan Maersk (20,568 TEU), Ever Golden (20,388), MSC Maya (19,224 TEU), Mogens Maersk (18,300 TEU), MSC New York (16,652 TEU), CMA CGM Marco Polo (16,020 TEU), Edith Maersk and EMC Thalassa Hellas (each 14,000 plus TEUs) and their sister vessels are now regular callers at CICT.