Ethiopia signs port deal with djibouti, bypasses somaliiland.

[PasserBy]

Ethiopia to sign Agreement with Djibouti to use Port for Coal Import.

 

Having agreed in principle, both are drafting terms, conditions of import arrangement

Ethiopia is to sign an agreement with Djibouti next month for the use of its Port to ship in and unload coal that the Ethiopian Petroleum Enterprise (EPE) plans to import to be used as fuel for cement factories.

 

Yigzaw Mekonnen, director general of EPE and Mekonnen Abera, head of market research and business promotion of the Ethiopian Shipping & Transit Services Enterprise, (EMTSE) were in Djibouti last week discussing the terms of the deal with Aboubaker Omar Hadi, the chairman of the Port.

 

This comes three weeks after Mekonnen Manyazewal, minister of industry (MoI), wrote a letter requesting Ethiopian Maritime & Transit Service Enterprise (EMTSE) and Ethiopian Shipping Lines (ESL) to prepare transportation and port facilities for the unloading of coal to be imported by the EPE.

 

The two countries have agreed on the general terms of import and are drafting the contract to be signed in November, according to Mekonnen.

 

It has been a few months since the EPE has been looking for alternative sources of fuel to replace the Heavy Furnace Oil currently in use. Their initial plan to use Pet Coke was unsuccessful due to supply and cost issues.

 

A task force composed of ESL, MTSE and five major cement factories, along with MoI, have considered the possible import of coal from other countries based on geographical proximity and institutions capable of importing at competitive prices. Based on their assessments, South Africa has been found to be a suitable destination to import from, considering South Africa has coal with a caloric degree of 6,300, which is suitable for cement factories.

 

With intentions and plans to have cement factories start using coal as soon as possible, institutions have been scrambling, trying to accomplish specific tasks assigned to them, within three months time.

 

The MoI has been collecting information from cement factories on how much cement is demanded in a year. Accordingly, it has found that, with the exception of Mugher and East Cement factories, the remaining factories in operation require 896,500tn of cement for this year.

 

Out of the twelve operational cement factories, the highest amount of coal is consumed by Messebo and Derba Midroc which have the capacity of producing 2.1 and 2.3 million tonnes of cement on a yearly basis, consuming 22,000tn of coal each.

 

However, as some of the cement factories have coal in stock from previous imports, the MoI is assessing these matters in order to determine how much coal to import. The EPE, which has been tasked with preparing the necessary human resources and budget for the import of coal, is also to look for companies to supply the product from South Africa up on floating an international tender.

 

The task force has discovered, through assessments, that it will cost 207.30 dollars for one tonne of coal to be transported from South Africa.

[burahadeer]

Juboutians are somalis & the only thing they get is the port.Good for them & is no concern to somali land.Ethiopia uses Berbera,too, though at a lower capacity.We wish our smaller somali brethren all the best.

[PasserBy]

Ethiopia was planning to use Berbera for the coal import but Silanyo has spooked them. The Gas pipeline that was supposed to go through Somalinad is also on hold. Xabashis have second thoughts about it. They prefer Djibouti port. That's why there was no mention of the alleged Somaliland, Ethiopia and China trilateral deal on the pipeline on xabashi media.

[burahadeer]

Whateva works for them is fine.I'm not envious of anyone...there is need everywhere..

[LANDER]

Odd to see an Ethiopian who takes such interest in somali matters. Like Burahadeer said the DJ port has got more capacity infrastructure wise. Not to mention that it is run by the emirates who happen to be great business minds with plenty of port experience in their belts. Not sure who's running Berbera but they probably ought to step their game up! I imagine they should be able to compete on price points and perhaps leverage any such advantages.

[Naxar Nugaaleed]

is Mekonnen a common name in ethiopia, every person you mentioned was a Mekonnen

[PasserBy]

It depends on the ethnic group. I think Solomon is more common than Mekonnen.

[Somalia]

Haha, all the SL people seem hurt over this.

[Abdul]

98% of Ethiopian goods go through djibouti,so no surprise there.

[Jacpher]

na

[Jacpher]

What's an Amxaar doing on this very site?

[Jacaylbaro]

It is a pity to see people happy with the Ethio's agreement with Djibouti and got pissed off when it is Somaliland ....... talk about double standards.

 

The two agreements are totally different ......