Container volume growth at a Colombo port private terminal run by an associate firm of John Keells Holdings slowed down sharply in June after surging in previous months, Lanka Business Online reported.

Analysts said it was the terminal's lowest monthly container volume handled so far this year and the slowest monthly growth compared with the previous year since October 2009.

But container volumes handled in the six months to June 2010 were up almost 25 percent to 1,010,087 TEUs compared with the same period in 2009.