SAGT preparing to meet the surge in demand

With the onset of the pandemic and wide-scale lockdowns in many parts of South Asia in early 2020, transhipment volumes at the Port of Colombo and South Asia Gateway Terminals (SAGT) dropped sharply, as shipping lines, ports and other related businesses strove to come to terms with what would possibly be a prolonged downturn in business.With the benefit of hindsight though, this was not to be the case and — as was seen in the latter half of 2020 — the recovery in shipping volumes was swift and sustained. Consequently, all maritime service providers have had to rethink and redesign networks and processes to meet the surge in demand in the ‘new normal’.Given the unanticipated increase in global trade, shipping lines and their customers faced challenges due to shortages in vessel space and container availability. In turn, terminals were expected to drive faster vessel turnaround times and assist in the speedy delivery of import containers. To accommodate faster delivery of import containers, the Port of Colombo launched a digitalised import clearance process to facilitate the timely evacuation of import containers while adhering to social distancing protocols.SAGT was at the forefront of this initiative and introduced a simple email-based process for the processing of documents and issuance of electronic delivery advice (e-D/A). This enabled customers to have the convenience of carrying out their clearance activities while in the comfort and safety of their own homes.SAGT’s swift adaptation and implementation of the e-DA initiative propelled the new process with immediate benefits and changed a decade-old process of physical collection of delivery documents at ‘Documentation Centres’ run by the terminals.SAGT followed up this initiative with an integrated, secure online platform added on to its online portal, ‘e-Port’, which allows customers the convenience of calculating charges and making payment online via an online electronic payment process. e-Port has further extended benefits to the customer through the automated reconciliation of payments received via the online payment platform and real-time generation of the invoice via the system.