Theory was brought to vivid life when Colombo International Container Terminals (CICT) recently hosted a group of students to a visit to the South Terminal of the Port of Colombo to see the port’s showpiece terminal in operation.

The visit, organised in collaboration with the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) provided 22 students from the university of Moratuwa, the Kotelawala Defence University (KDU), Ocean University of Sri Lanka and CINEC Campus an opportunity to witness the working of an award-winning deep-water terminal – the only one of its kind in the region.

Presentations from CICT’s heads of department in the fields of operations, safety, engineering, human resources, commercial and marketing provided an insight into multiple aspects of the functioning of a port, and was followed by visits to a berth, the gantry cranes, yard and gate house.

A spokesperson for CICT said this visit was the first of four planned for the year, to enable students following degrees in supply chain, logistics and transport to get first-hand information, and to experience port operations as part of their education. CICT was pleased by the high level of interest shown by the visiting students and encouraged by the female representation in the group, the spokesperson added.

CICT already has a collaboration with CILT to provide job-based training opportunities for young people aspiring to careers in logistics and transport, under which CILT is the liaison between educational institutes and CICT, and CICT provides industrial exposure, training and employment opportunities to the candidates sourced by CILT.

CICT manages the South Terminal of the Port of Colombo, the first and only operating deep-water terminal in South Asia, which is 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 just over 3.2 million teus in 2021. CICT has been recognised as the best container terminal in Asia in the under 4 million TEUs category for six consecutive years from 2017 to 2022 at the Asian Freight, Logistics and Supply Chain (AFLAS) awards.

CICT is the flagship overseas terminal of China Merchants Port Holdings Company Limited (CMPort). CMPort is the largest and a globally-competitive public port developer, investor and operator in China with investments in Mainland China, Hong Kong and overseas. CMPort has a port network portfolio spanning 50 ports in 26 countries and regions. Guided by the vision "To be a world class comprehensive port service provider” and supported by its domestic, overseas and innovation strategies, CMPort strives to strengthen its core competencies in global throughput, port service and management.