The Port of Hambantota is strategically located along the East-West main sea route, with an approximate deviation of ten nautical miles. Most current business at the Port of Hambantota relies on automobile roll-on/roll-off, breakbulk, bulk, and project cargo operations. Furthermore, container ship handling operations are expected to commence at the Port of Hambantota. Therefore, this study evaluates the competitiveness of the Port of Hambantota as a container transshipment hub compared to six existing transshipment hub ports: the Port of Jebel Ali and Port of Salalah in Southwest Asia, the Port of Colombo in South Asia, and the Port of Singapore, Port of Tanjung Pelepas, and Port Klang in Southeast Asia. This study considers the mainline-to-feeder transshipment operation. The competitiveness analysis is based on market share using an extended version of the generalised cost approach combined with a discrete choice model. Senior managers attached to the main container line agencies in Sri Lanka evaluated the selection criteria for transshipment hub ports and the performance of the competing hubs. Further scenario analysis was conducted to understand the potential implications for the transshipment business at the Port of Hambantota. The results indicate that the Port of Singapore has the highest potential to become a market leader in transshipment operations despite the presence of the Port of Hambantota. However, the findings also suggest that the Port of Hambantota possesses significant potential for transshipment operations, provided that there are continuous improvements in port performance.
Gunawardhana et al. (Tue,) studied this question.