Ethiopian Shipping Lines’ First-Quarter Profit Nears Two Billion Birr

ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopian Shipping Lines (ESL) says it has secured close to two Billion Birr in gross profit after transporting more than a million tons of import and export cargo during the first three months of the 2023/24 fiscal year,

The state-owned logistics firm handles most of Ethiopia’s multimodal ocean freight, Slot Carrier and Charter, in addition to operating logistics hubs and centers.

The company in a statement on Friday reported 13.06 Billion Birr in revenues for services provided during the first three months of the fiscal year.

In the shipping sector, the firm said it has managed to transport over 1 million tons of import and export cargo using its own slot carriers and chartered Vessels.

ELS, through its freight forwarding services, carried 29,557 Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit (TEU) containers and 411 Roll-on/roll-off containers of vehicles to their destined inland ports and bonded warehouses in multimodal transport services.

The firm also handled about 832,070 tons of import cargo and 83,662 tons of export cargo through its Unimodal transport services.

It ” also provided service with a total container throughput of 104, 659 TEU containers in its ports and terminals,” the firm said.

From these services, the ESl secured 13.06 billion Birr in first-quarter revenues, per its financial report.

The report also put ESL’s operational and administrative expenditure at 11.12 billion birr, bringing the first quarter profit before tax to 1.937 billion.

The multimodal operator started the current Ethiopian fiscal year with a 6.7 Billion Birr profit target, after attaining 112% of its 5.4 Billion Birr profit plan last year.

The Ethiopian Shipping and Logistics (ESL), the only national Flag carrier in Africa, operates Shipping and Logistics Services to 345 international ports.