Ethiopia buys Chinese cargo ships to up capacity

ADDIS ABABA, April 12 (Reuters) – Ethiopia plans to spend $44.5 million on two Chinese-built cargo ships over the next two years to meet rising demands for freight capacity, the country’s state-owned shipping firm said on Monday.

The two vessels will be in service in 2006 and 2007 and be equipped to ship containers, grain, fertilisers and other bulk cargo to increase Ethiopia’s freight capacity to 160,000 tonnes from the current 110,000 tonnes.

“The 30 percent annual growth in freight and the positive projection of Ethiopia’s overall development contributed to the decision made to acquire the new vessels,” Ambachew Abraha, managing director of the Ethiopian Shipping Line (ESL) told reporters on Monday.

Chinese ship builders beat seven other international competitors to win the contract to add to ESL’s existing eight cargo ships.

ESL says it generated around $9 million in 2003 from its cargo services for the landlocked Horn of Africa country, which relies mainly on the port in neighbouring Djibouti, following a 1998-2000 border war with Eritrea.