The Ethiopian Shipping and Logistics Services Enterprise (ESLSE), known commercially as the Ethiopian Shipping Lines, is the national cargo

shipping Freight transport, also referred as ''Freight Forwarding'', is the physical process of transporting Commodity, commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it h ...

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of people, whether Natural person, natural, Legal person, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common p ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

. Established in 1964, it is noteworthy as it has continued to operate despite Ethiopia having become a landlocked country in 1993; its main base is now the

Port of Djibouti The Port of Djibouti is a port in Djibouti, the capital of Djibouti. It is strategically located at the crossroads of one of the busiest shipping routes in the world, linking Europe, the Far East, the Horn of Africa and the Persian Gulf. The por ...

and

Berbera Berbera (; so, Barbara, ar, بربرة) is the capital of the Sahil region of Somaliland and is the main sea port of the country. Berbera is a coastal city and was the former capital of the British Somaliland protectorate before Hargeisa. It ...

Somaliland Somaliland,; ar, صوماليلاند ', ' officially the Republic of Somaliland,, ar, جمهورية صوماليلاند, link=no ''Jumhūrīyat Ṣūmālīlānd'' is a ''de facto'' sovereign state in the Horn of Africa, still conside ...

History

Ethiopia regained a coastline on the Red Sea when Eritrea was federated with Ethiopia in 1952. However, it was not until 1965 that the Ethiopian Shipping Lines was established as a joint venture with the American company

Towers Perrin Towers Perrin was a professional services firm specializing in human resources and financial services consulting, which merged in January 2010 with Watson Wyatt to form Towers Watson. The firm was a provider of reinsurance intermediary services a ...

. A Dutch company was contracted to manage the line along the lines of the then-ongoing arrangement with

TWA Trans World Airlines (TWA) was a major American airline which operated from 1930 until 2001. It was formed as Transcontinental & Western Air to operate a route from New York City to Los Angeles via St. Louis, Kansas City, and other stops, with ...

to manage the flag carrier airline Ethiopian Airlines. Operations commenced in 1966 with three ships called ''Queen of Sheba'', ''Lion of Judah'' and ''Lalibela''. The Line quickly faced serious challenges when the

Suez Canal The Suez Canal ( arz, قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. The long canal is a popular ...

was closed in 1967. Until Suez Canal was opened again, the vessels had to go all around the Cape. The size of the ships was not appropriate for such long voyages, and the company ran into a loss. Since then, the ESL has focused mainly on domestic import and export, to promote foreign trade. It has generally been profitable.

References

{{Container shipping companies Transport companies of Ethiopia Container shipping companies Companies based in Addis Ababa Transport companies established in 1965

History

See also

References