2merkato

The Ethiopian Shipping Lines Share Company announced plans to open Multi Modal Transport service to the private sector.

Multi Modal transport offers the transportation of goods through different means of shipping (eg rail and road) under a single contract. The carrier is held liable for the whole trip across the various means under this system.

The Multi Modal system will be in effect for goods passing through Port Djibouti which accounts for 98% of Ethiopia’s imports and exports.

Employees of the former Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation have been called back by Ethio Telecom. Ethio Telecom is forming a new company ‘Hidasse’ Telecom Supportive Share Company’ which will offer employment to all laid off ETC employees at their previous salaries.

Former ETC employees who accept the employment with ‘Hidasse’ will not be considered as employees of Ethio Telecom.

Dashen Bank has contracted for the construction of two branches in the Ethiopian towns of Gondar and Dire Dawa. The construction projects are expected to cost a total of 103.5 million birr.

The construction of the Dashen branch in the Northern town of Gondar will be carried out by Orbit Engineering plc. The contractor won the project for 37.5 million birr and took charge of the building site last week.

The Ethiopian Mapping Agency put out an invitation for companies interested in conducting aerial photography in digital format and photo-grammetric processing last week. The tender will remain open until the 15th of December.

The invitation includes aerial photography of 23 major urban areas including Addis Ababa, Dire Dawa and regional states in an effort to prepare a national cadastral map.

Companies, selected by the Ethiopian Transport Authority, to provide Automated Vehicle Inspection are finalizing the required criteria. 

The eight companies selected to provide the inspection services are Global Insurance, Gigar Trading, Care Tech plc, Hagbes plc, Tikur Abay Transport SC, MN Drivers plc, Orbis and Reis Engineering. So far only Gigar Trading, Reis Engineering, Hagbes plc and Orbis have fulfilled the requirements set out by the ETA.

The Ethiopian National Bank is to offer, for auction, one year treasury bills for the first time today. The bank will issue 100 million birr worth of bills with a one year maturity date.

A total of 5.2 billion birr in bills will be issued by the central bank.

The Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation is to construct six wind power and one Geo Thermal Power Plant this fiscal year. The alternative power generating projects are expected to have the capacity to generate 1,015 Mega Watts.

The wind power projects are Adama II Wind Power Project (153 MW),  Assela Wind Power Project, (100MW),  Ayisha Wind Farm (300MW), Debre Berhan Wind Farm (100MW), Galema I Wind Power Project (250 MW) and the Mosebo Harena Wind Farm (42 MW).

The Aluto Langano Geo Thermal Project is expected to have the capacity to generate 70 MW.

The Ethiopian Ministry of trade banned 16 coffee exporters from trading on the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) this month. The exporters were banned for failing to have their stock audited by the ministry.  

The banned traders are said to include some known for high volumes of trade on the exchange according to MOT officials.

The Ministry of Trade sent a letter to the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange Authority prohibiting the traders from selling or buying on the trading floor for an unlimited length of time. The ban only prohibits trading in coffee and has no limits on other commodities. 

Five Ethiopian packaging manufacturers applied for quality certification to produce the standard boxes for flower exports. The standard packaging was established by the Ethiopian Conformity Assessment Enterprise.

The five companies requiring certification for the production of the packaging are Addis Ahadu packaging plc, Balaji Packaging plc, Burayu Development plc, DA packaging plc and Ethio pulp and paper SC.

The companies have presented sample boxes manufactured according to the specifications set and which are undergoing testing by the ECAE. The ECAE is expected to announce the results of the testing in two weeks time.

Ethiopian cement factories, Mugar and Messobo, have requested that the government halt cement imports in letters to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development. The cement factories claimed that they can produce enough to meet local demand.

The cement factories have excess stock according to an anonymous official at Mughar. The two factories have increased their annual production by a total of 1.7 million tons following expansion projects.