The Sri Lanka Ports Authority announced yesterday it would attract the growing ship lay-up business triggered by the global economic slump and has earmarked safe anchorages for vessels.

Expressing views on this, Managing Director of Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA), Capt. Nihal Keppetipola said, "We have got clearance from the security authorities now to lay up vessels in safe anchorages outside Colombo harbour."

He also said that SLPA had recieved several requests from shipping lines on the possibility of laying up their ships in the anchorages of SLPA.

SLPA is also holding talks with the authorities of the defence sectors on using the Eastern Port of Trincomalee for laying up ships.

Trincomalee is one of Asia’s biggest natural harbours. It was used for ship lay-up during down turns in the shipping market before the outbreak of the ethnic war in the early 1980s.

"Officials in the shipping industry say that the country can earn foreign exchange for laying up vessels and also for providing services to maintain the ships until they are recalled," an SLPA statement said.

"The demand for ship lay-up arose with the collapse of the shipping trade caused partly due to the global economic downturn, reduced trade and huge over-supply of vessels," it said.

The SLPA said shipping lines seek to lay up their vessels when it becomes uneconomic to operate them when the slump in the market hits earnings because of reduced demand, delivery of new vessels and fewer ships being scrapped.

As per the records in the industry, the worst hit by the downturn were container ships and bulk carriers with tankers also now getting affected because of the lower oil market.

"Our sources also indicate that with charter rates plunging and earnings poor, loss-making shipping lines are scrambling to pull ships out of the market and lay them up until the market recovers," the SLPA said.

"The over supply situation arose because of a heavy bout of ordering in recent years during the boom in shipping," it said.

Some container lines already have almost a quarter of their ship capacity in lay-up with the average figure being nine percent for the top 24 container lines. The situation has become worse that some newly built vessels are heading straight for lay-up.