South Asia Gateway Terminals Ltd also known as SAGT is a Sri Lankan

container terminal A container port or container terminal is a facility where cargo containers are transshipped between different transport vehicles, for onward transportation. The transshipment may be between container ships and land vehicles, for example train ...

transportation operating shipping service company located in the

Port of Colombo The Port of Colombo (known as Port of Kolomtota during the early 14th Century Kotte Kingdom) is the largest and busiest port in Sri Lanka and the Indian Ocean. Located in Colombo, on the southwestern shores on the Kelani River, it serves as an i ...

. It is one of the three container terminals operating in Colombo Port. It is a private limited company owned by the

John Keells Holdings John Keells Holdings PLC (JKH) is one of the largest conglomerate companies in Sri Lanka. From managing hotels and resorts in Sri Lanka and the Maldives to providing port, marine fuel and logistics services to IT solutions, manufacturing of food ...

which is the major shareholder. The terminal also consists of other major shareholders such as

Evergreen Group The Evergreen Group () is the organizational designation used by a Taiwan-based conglomerate of shipping, transportation, and associated service companies. The Evergreen Group arose in 1975 from the diversification of the original Evergreen Ma ...

APM Terminals APM Terminals is a port operating company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands. A unit of Danish shipping company Maersk's Transport and Logistics division, it manages terminals and provides integrated cargo and inland services. It operat ...

Sri Lanka Ports Authority Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) is the state-owned operator of major commercial ports in Sri Lanka. Founded in 1979, SLPA currently operates ports in Colombo, Galle, Hambantota, Kankesanthurai, Oluvil, Point Pedro and Trincomalee. As of 31 March ...

and Peony Investments. It is rated as one of the top container ports in the world.

Operations

The terminal was founded in 1999 as a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

on a 30-year

Build Operate Transfer Build may refer to: * Engineering something * Construction * Physical body stature, especially muscle size; usually of the human body * Build (game engine), a 1995 first-person shooter engine * "Build" (song), a 1987 song by The Housemartins * ...

concession and started its operations on 5 September 1999 developing the Queen Elizabeth Quay in the Port of Colombo. SAGT is the largest private sector investment in Sri Lanka and is also the first public-private partnership unit container terminal in Sri Lanka. SAGT mainly serves as the transport sector to JKH Holdings. Since 1999, the terminal has been playing a vital major role in the facilitation of

international trade International trade is the exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories because there is a need or want of goods or services. (see: World economy) In most countries, such trade represents a significan ...

through Sri Lanka. It is also affiliated with the Board of Investments as a flagship company. In 2015, the

Journal of Commerce ''The Journal of Commerce'' is a biweekly magazine published in the United States that focuses on global trade topics. First published in 1827 in New York, it has a circulation of approximately 15,000. It provides editorial content to manage da ...

in US ranked SAGT as no 1 for terminal productivity in the South Asian region and ranked the terminal as the fourth most productive efficient terminal in the world. SAGT achieved 2 million TEUs in December 2018 recording its highest performance in a single calendar year. In May 2020, it introduced the paperless electronic clearance process for import containers due to the risks related to

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

. In July 2020, it became the first Sri Lankan terminal to collaborate with digital platform TradeLens, adopting the

Blockchain A blockchain is a type of distributed ledger technology (DLT) that consists of growing lists of records, called ''blocks'', that are securely linked together using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, ...

technology to digitize the trade processes especially

supply chains In commerce, a supply chain is a network of facilities that procure raw materials, transform them into intermediate goods and then final products to customers through a distribution system. It refers to the network of organizations, people, activ ...

to improve the

supply chain management In commerce, supply chain management (SCM) is the management of the flow of goods and services including all processes that transform raw materials into final products between businesses and locations. This can include the movement and sto ...

References

{{Reflist Shipping companies of Sri Lanka Transport companies established in 1999 Port operating companies Economy of Colombo 1999 establishments in Sri Lanka