Colombo port under threat? Galathea is the warning shot
Colombo, Aug. 17 (Daily Mirror) - Colombo has the port. India has the cargo. With nearly, Sri Lanka’s record-breaking port performance hides a strategic vulnerability it can no longer ignore. 45% of Colombo’s transshipment business linked to Indian cargo and half of Colombo’s transshipment business is linked to India. This is both Colombo’s greatest opportunity—and its greatest strategic vulnerability.
Colombo has every reason to celebrate.
In 2025, the Port of Colombo handled a record 8.29 million TEUs, its highest-ever annual throughput. Around 81% of that volume was transshipment, confirming Colombo’s position as one of the Indian Ocean’s principal container hubs.
But behind the record lies a number that Colombo’s policymakers, port authorities and shipping industry cannot afford to ignore.
Approximately 45% of Colombo’s transshipment volumes are linked to Indian cargo.
That figure changes the conversation.
It means that Colombo’s extraordinary success is not simply a Sri Lankan success story. It is also a story of India’s enormous cargo base being connected to global shipping networks through Colombo. India is now preparing to change that equation.
Galathea is the wake-up call
India’s proposed Galathea Bay International Container Transshipment Port, on Great Nicobar Island, is one of the most strategically significant maritime infrastructure projects emerging in the Indian Ocean.
The 5.2 billion project is advancing through its pre-construction and PPP implementation stages and Expected to groundbreaking soon.
Its location is what makes it particularly important. Galathea Bay sits on Great Nicobar Island, close to the major East–West international shipping route and strategically positioned toward the Malacca Strait.
The first phase is envisaged at approximately 4 million TEUs, eventually expanding toward 16 million TEUs. This is not simply another port being added to India’s already extensive coastline.
India is building an alternative transshipment gateway and this should matter enormously to Colombo.
For years, India has relied heavily on foreign ports—including Colombo and Singapore—to transship cargo because it lacked a comparable deep-water transshipment facility in a strategically advantageous location.
Now New Delhi wants to change that.
The logic is straightforward.
Why should Indian cargo leave India to generate jobs, revenue and maritime business in another country? Obviously, India wants to capture more of that value domestically.
Galathea is one of the mechanisms through which it intends to do so.
For Colombo, this is not an abstract future threat. It goes directly to the heart of its present business model.
The 45% question.
If approximately 45% of Colombo’s transshipment volumes are linked to Indian-origin or Indian-destination cargo, then India is not simply one of Colombo’s customers. India is one of the pillars supporting Colombo’s transshipment ecosystem. This creates an extraordinary opportunity for Sri Lanka. But it also creates an extraordinary vulnerability.
Colombo’s success has been built on its strategic location, deep-water terminals, efficient connectivity and established relationships with global shipping lines. Yet much of the cargo passing through Colombo does not belong to Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka controls the port. It does not control the cargo.
Cargo owners, shipping lines and logistics companies ultimately decide where the container moves shipping network can change.
The danger is not tomorrow. It is the gradual shift.
Colombo should not expect Galathea to open one morning and suddenly take millions of containers away. That is not how maritime competition works. The real danger is the gradual restructuring of shipping networks.
If carriers begin routing more Indian cargo through an Indian transshipment hub, they will develop new feeder networks, sailing schedules, logistics relationships and commercial arrangements around that hub. Once those networks become established, reversing the shift becomes considerably more difficult.
The danger is therefore not that Colombo suddenly loses its business. The danger is that Colombo slowly loses its strategic centrality.
Sri Lanka must therefore resist complacency. The 8.29 million TEU achievement is impressive. But yesterday’s record does not guarantee tomorrow’s competitiveness.
Sri Lanka now needs a serious, measurable and nationally coordinated Colombo Maritime Competitiveness Strategy 2035. Not another policy document. Not another committee. Not another collection of ambitions. But, a measurable 2035 competitiveness strategy targeting faster vessel turnaround, higher container productivity, stronger transshipment volumes, competitive pricing, digital operations and resilient feeder connectivity.
It must also modernize and expand shipping-line services, bunkering, repairs, logistics and maritime technology, while attracting regional logistics investment and securing long-term carrier commitments.
Colombo must stop thinking like a transshipment port. “The warning sign is already visible in the numbers: Indian-origin or Indian-destination cargo accounts for roughly 45% of Colombo’s transshipment business. With transshipment representing about four-fifths of Colombo’s total container throughput, the Indian connection is not a marginal part of the port’s business—it is one of the foundations of Colombo’s position as a regional hub.”
This is perhaps the most important strategic shift. Colombo should not seek merely to remain a place where containers are transferred from one ship to another.
Colombo must become the Indian Ocean’s maritime services and logistics centre.
A ship calling at Colombo should find a complete maritime services package under one roof—bunkering, ship repair, spare parts, technical and maintenance services, crew changes, provisioning, warehousing, insurance, finance, maritime technology and integrated logistics rather than simply a place to transfer containers.
Every additional service makes Colombo more valuable to shipping line and every additional service makes it harder for a carrier to simply move its network elsewhere.
The objective should be simple: make Colombo commercially indispensable.
Use the Adani connection intelligently
Sri Lanka also possesses an unusual commercial asset that should be used strategically. The Adani Group’s involvement in Colombo’s West Container Terminal gives Sri Lanka a direct connection to one of India’s largest private port and logistics groups. Adani’s extensive presence across India’s port network provides commercial insight into Indian cargo flows, shipping-line strategies and the evolution of India’s maritime infrastructure. Sri Lanka should use that relationship.
Not as political dependence. Not as a substitute for national strategy. But as a commercial intelligence and connectivity advantage.
Colombo should understand where Indian cargo is going, how India’s port network is evolving and how Sri Lanka can remain embedded within those trade flows.
The objective should be commercial alignment and not political dependence.
There is still time. Once Galathea is operational, India will be positioned to compete for transshipment flows from Bangladesh and Myanmar as well, potentially extending the competitive pressure far beyond Colombo’s traditional Indian cargo base. This will be turning Colombo’s Indian Ocean advantage into a much wider competitive challenge.
Galathea has not yet arrived. it is expected to commence in 2030-2031. This gives Colombo a window. But it is not a window for complacency. It is a window for action.
Shipping lines plan their networks years ahead. They do not wait for a port to open before deciding whether it deserves a place on their strategic map.
The battle for Colombo’s future should therefore be fought before Galathea opens its gates. Sri Lanka should act now to make Colombo faster, more efficient, more commercially attractive and more deeply integrated into regional supply chains.
When Galathea eventually opens, Colombo should not be asking:
“How much Indian cargo are we going to lose?”
It should be asking:
“Why would a shipping line leave Colombo?”
That is the strategic question Sri Lanka must answer now.
Not in 2030. Not in 2035. And certainly not after Galathea begins taking its first containers.
