Tuesday January18, 2004

Bill of Lading still confusing

By Tamiru Geda

Implementing the system of using bill of lading have been said to be more beneficial to the Ethiopian Shipping Lines S.C. (ESL), while officials of the share company denied the claim. Officials at ESL expressed this when answering accusations voiced at a customers discussion forum held at the Addis Ababa Hilton on Thursday, January 13.

According to Ambachew Abraha, director of the shipping monopoly, the matter of instituting the system is still under negotiation. He denied that the liner would derive undue advantage from the bill of lading system. On the contrary Ambachew stated his belief that ESL would stand to lose from the system because it would be compelled to carry the risk for a longer of distance-up to the dry port in Addis, where goods are going to be delivered to customers. “We initiated the idea of implementing the bill of lading system in Ethiopia, supposing that it would save foreign currency currently being wasted in payment for various provided at the port of Djibouti”, he said while further noting that the system would suit the dry port system which has to be used in a land locked country like Ethiopia. But despite the resolution of the Ethiopian side to institute these systems, the Djiboutians are not expected to simply agree to implementation of the scheme but after rigorous bilateral negotiations, which are underway now. Ambachew stated that the negotiations may be finalized at the next meeting to be held in the near future, and said that Ethiopia may be able to save foreign currency.

Some importers also claimed that the tariff of ESL is very expensive compared to other competitors, to which Ambachew responded that the share company believes the tariff to be fair considering the reliability of the liner he leads he said “regardless of the monopoly of ESL gained through a directive imposed by the government demanding exclusive use our liners, we believe that we are really are competitive.” The director also asserted ESL’s reputation as the national carrier, which always intervened to save the day in cases of emergency for importers, whenever the need arose. Some importers using old chartered shippers and have sometimes faced challenges when the liners didn’t have routes, but we intervened to assist during such circumstances”.

Importers also demanded explanation from the management of ESL as to why the company has declined to accept checks and has been requesting cash payment order (CPO).  The officials retorted that the insistence upon the use of CPOs is brought about due to the not rare failure of clients to honour the checks they gave to the company. During the discussion most customers applauded the admirable reform measures undertaken by the share company. It is also said that the share company is under negotiation to purchase two ships at a price of more than 40 million USD.