{"id":184316,"date":"2017-11-17T00:13:04","date_gmt":"2017-11-16T18:43:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=184316"},"modified":"2017-11-20T00:11:30","modified_gmt":"2017-11-19T18:41:30","slug":"a-celestial-spectacle-over-port-of-colombo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-celestial-spectacle-over-port-of-colombo\/","title":{"rendered":"A Celestial Spectacle Over Port Of Colombo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><strong><span class=\"s1\">By Sagara Senadhipathi &#8211;<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">The sight of a comet never fails to fascinate the human mind.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>A comet appearing in skies above is regarded as harbinger of bad tidings or heavenly riches. The Halley\u2019s comet in 1910 created a comet fever that engulfed the world. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\"> Our portly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/mangala-in-fresh-soup-mahinda-s-declares-war-saying-he-was-bypassed-on-shipping-liberalization\/\">Minster of Ports &amp; Shipping Mahinda Samarasinghe has seen a new comet<\/a> over the port of Colombo. It has bent him out of shape. He is enraged. He is fighting mad.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Shipping-history-Sri-Lanka-.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-184319\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Shipping-history-Sri-Lanka-.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"759\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Shipping-history-Sri-Lanka-.jpg 759w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Shipping-history-Sri-Lanka--300x157.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 759px) 100vw, 759px\" \/><\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">He tells anybody who cares to listen, that if liberalized, as proposed in the budget, our shipping sector will experience, illness, pestilence, shortages and great famine. The new comet also a Hayley\u2019s has a \u2018 y\u2019 in the middle, has a tail as all comets do that points away from the sun.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">The tail that points away from the sun and shields us from the current intrigues in our shipping sector is called \u2018Advantis\u2019. This is the celestial spectacle that has wobbled and warped the good sense of Minster Mahinda Samarasinghe. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">The Sri Lankan Conglomerate Hayleys is controlled by Dhammika Perera our stock market oracle. Given our <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>modest size, he commands a punch as good as that of Warren Buffet.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>In fairness to Warren Buffet, it must be said that the oracle of Omaha does not own any casinos in Las Vegas or was the US transport secretary. Our man was Transport Secretary under Mahinda Rajapaksa. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\"> Our man is more hands on but shuns the spotlight. When he buys a company, he buys the punditry attached to it. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>\u2018Hayleys Advantis\u2019 is the transportation and logistics arm of Hayleys Plc. As the Daily FT reported on 17<\/b><\/span><span class=\"s2\"><b><sup>th<\/sup><\/b><\/span><span class=\"s1\"><b> August 2017, Hayley\u2019s Advantis acquired 94.8 % stake in the Sri Lanka Shipping Company Limited for Rs.4.9 Billion.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>In a disclosure to the Colombo Stock Exchange Hayley\u2019s Plc informs that the acquisition was in pursuit of a strategy to expand its maritime operations and paving the way for the establishment of the largest maritime and shipping company in Sri Lanka.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">According to the Daily FT of 17<\/span><span class=\"s2\"><sup>th<\/sup><\/span><span class=\"s1\"> August 2017 \u201cSri Lanka Shipping has enjoyed an excellent and respected position in the local shipping industry and is headquartered in its own building at Nawam Mawatha named after its founder Chairman Robert Senanayake the second son of our first Prime Minster D.S.Senanayake and<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>brother of Prime minister Dudley Senanayake.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Robert Senanayake became a pioneer in the local shipping industry when he bought Freudenberg and Company founded in 1873 by Philip Freudenberg a German who came to buy coffee and realized the need for shipping service that linked the colony of Ceylon with Europe in the wake the Suez Canal eliminating the need to round the cape.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Sri Lanka Shipping Company is a provider of a range of services as agent for liners and tramps. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\"> The proposed port liberalization will make the new acquisition of Hayley\u2019s Advantis a grand stable with no stallions. A Puswedilla that cos them Rs.Five Billion.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Agency houses don\u2019t have assets. They have agencies and name boards.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">To Dammika Perera its acquisition is what Berkshire Hathaway meant for Warren Buffet. An anchor depictive of acquired continuity of some respectable continuity and brand value. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Despite our frequent and exaggerated bragging of its import as a maritime hub, Sri Lankan sea ports have not leveraged their strategic import. Indian transshipments account for 80% of the volume of the port of Colombo. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">The former Minster Arjuna Ranatunga in February, this year said that Colombo Port has been ranked among the world&#8217;s best 25 ports in the Alphaliner rankings in 2017. Colombo port has a capacity for 7.5 million containers per year as of now. Utilization however stood only at 5.4 million in 2016 which is 69% of its capacity. It looks as if the port of Colombo is in step with Sri Lankan Airlines which according to its last published annual report has on overall load factor of 68%! <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">According to Logistics Performance Index (LPI ) Sri Lanka is ranked 68<\/span><span class=\"s2\"><sup>th<\/sup><\/span><span class=\"s1\"> among<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>160 countries and way below many in the region.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Mr.Mahinda Samarasinghe demands an upfront<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>US Dollars<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>100 million from possible foreign entrants to his nautical marvel. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\"> The last published picture of him in conclave with Captains of the ship agency cartel \u2013 Ceylon Association of Ship Agents \u2013 CASSA showed his designer hair cut crown nearly colliding with the bald<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>pate of the Advantis boss.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>As my grand moter Daisy aachchi would say Five Billion is not \u2018Kadgu Ata or Kos Ata\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s1\">Incumbents cartels with proprietorial privileges as parasitic middlemen are hard to budge. They use their access to political patronage to dull competition. If we are to make our port of Colombo a conducive hub for transshipments to the Indian sub-continent we need to offer a measurable value proposition to Indians who are already engaged in developing their port infrastructure which in the near future will infuse more competition. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s1\">Charting a new course, in maritime economics is not a choice but an imperative. Encouraging large operators to make a tangible presence in the port of Colombo is possible only by opening the field with a neutral regulator. An efficient port inevitably leads to strong export earnings and wider benefits. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":209,"featured_media":58268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-184316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Celestial Spectacle Over Port Of Colombo - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-celestial-spectacle-over-port-of-colombo\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Celestial Spectacle Over Port Of Colombo - 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