The Sri Lanka Ports Authority is to buy cargo handling cranes and rubber tired gantry cranes from China to improve cargo handling facility in the Port of Colombo.

The consignment will include one crane of 50 tonne capacity, two cranes of 41 tonne capacity and 24 Rubber Tired Gantry cranes of 41 tonne capacity.

The Authority will receive a USD 62.5 million loan from the Bank of Ceylon to fund the acquisition of new cranes.

The equipment is urgently needed to replace aging cranes at the Jaya Container Terminal, the port's main container transshipment facility, where cargo handling operations are slowed down and ships delayed owing to breakdowns.

The Ports Authority expects to boost its capacity at the JCT when the cranes, being made at the manufacturer ZPMC in China, arrive in the first quarter of next year.

The Central Bank has built considerable foreign exchange reserves due to higher policy rates that the anchor US currency and sterilization of rupee liquidity generated from inflows, putting upward pressure on the exchange rate.