Assessment Of Freight Transport And Transportation Infrastructures Along International Trade Route The Case Of China Djibouti Ethiopia

Ethiopia is a landlocked country in East Africa. The ability to transport freight goods quickly, economicallyrnand reliably is very important to a nation’s prosperity and competence in global market. Currently thernlogistics system of Ethiopia is characterized by poor logistics management system and poor transportationrninfrastructures. In addition to that the country is mainly dependent on only Djibouti port for internationalrntrade. Its inland transportation is also underdeveloped as only road transportation is used for main share ofrnfreight transport.rnThe objective of this thesis was to assess the freight transport and transportation infrastructures along thernChina-Djibouti-Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) trade route via Modjo dry port. The sea transportation from China tornDjibouti and inland road transportation from Djibouti to Addis Ababa was also studied including the inlandrnroad transportation infrastructures along with identifying the existing freight transport and logistics problemsrnon the international trade route. Primary data has been collected using interview and questionnaire; alsornsecondary data from different stake holders in the freight transport and logistics in addition literatures werernused to enrich the assessment. The methodology used is qualitative and quantitative type for a comparativernassessment and analysis.rnFrom the research it was found out that for containerized goods, the sea freight unit cost applied for 20TEUrncontainers from Chinese ports of Tianjin and Shanghai to Djibouti port was USD 1,500 and USD 1,315rnrespectively. And for the inland road transportation, the freight rates from Djibouti port to Modjo dry portrnranges from 1,734 to 1,854 USD per 20TEU container. This means it costs more to truck a container fromrnDjibouti to Addis Ababa, than to ship the same container from China to Djibouti. In terms of time the searntransport will take a voyage time of 40days and 37days (including sea time and time in ports) from Tianjinrnand Shanghai ports to Djibouti port respectively. For inland road transportation from Djibouti to Modjo dryrnport, it takes 2 – 10 days on performance basis under normal circumstances. In the future there may be arncheaper alternative of oil pipeline and railway in the Djibouti-Addis Ababa route which are considered to bernthe more efficient and least cost modes of transport. As most authors agree, it is better to consider a varietyrnof modes in combination so that the respective advantages/benefits of each mode are better exploited thus thernIntermodal transportation (“Multimodal”) have most significant positive impacts over the freight transportrni.e. Considering other alternatives beyond the current Shipping → Trucking system of freight transport tornShipping → Rail → Trucking and Shipping → Pipeline → Trucking (Oil transport). For the case ofrntransportation infrastructures, 65.9 % of the trunk road Addis Ababa–Djibouti border is in a good condition,rn13.2% in a poor condition and the rest of the percentage in fair condition. For the case of the Bridges alongrnthe same route; 53% in a good condition, 22% in a poor condition and the remaining 25% in fair condition.rnThe road stretching from Djibouti Border (Galafi) to Djibouti Port, 28% is in good condition, 21% of thernhighway in Poor to Very poor condition and the remaining percentage in fair condition. The new AddisrnAbaba-Adama toll road, the new Awash River crossing bridge and the under construction outer ring road ofrnLebu-Akaki-Goro are expected to improve the flow of traffic in the route in saving a travel time andrnlowering the vehicle operating cost for instance the heavy vehicles are only paying for 38% of the benefitrnthey have gained on the new toll road. The new Electrical (environmental friendly) railway from AddisrnAbaba to Djibouti is likely to improve the inland freight transport system with a faster travel time of 10rnhours on the route relative to the average two days taken on inland road transportation and it may be able tornreplace at least 94TEU containers that were transported on inland road transportation. The use of ecofriendlyrnmode of transportation of the Pipeline and railway system will enable saving of enormous amount ofrnfuel and a great deal of foreign currency spent by the nation in importing that much fuel from the exporters,rnthe related CO2 that would have been emitted to the atmosphere will be saved and the reduction of freightrnvehicles on the road will improve the flow of traffic on the route in reducing congestion and traffic accidentsrnon the highway that in turn enhance the traffic safety and comfort of the road users on the route. The freightrntransport and logistics is still characterized having long time custom processing even if it is much better withrnrespect to previous times and also 57% of the customers questioned chose ‘uni-modal’ transport over the sorncalled “multimodal” transport. The new to be imported trucks by Ethiopian Shipping and Logistics ServicernEnterprise (ESLSE) may improve and increase the capacity of the freight vehicle carrying capacity tornAssessment of Freight Transport and Transportation Infrastructures along International Trade Route: China - EthiopiarnApril 2015 Page 10rn57ton/vehicle and also if the axle load limit is increased with 2ton/axle limit, there is going to be anrnimprovement on the vehicle operating cost. The joint command post at Modjo dry port may succeed inrnreducing the congested number of containers and their dwell time on the port. The expansion projects in thernDjibouti port and exploring other alternatives in the nearby ports may benefit the nation in the internationalrntrade. And also the full implementation of demurrage law and electronic cargo trucking system may enhancernthe customs service on the international trade route. The state owned ESLSE being the only “multimodal”rntransport operator (MTO) should work together with different private stake holders in addressing the issuesrnof customer’s complaint and for the common benefit of the nation

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