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The Ministry of Works and Urban Development (MoWUD)
has ordered 50 trucks from China at a cost of 75
million Br for the state owned Weyra Transport SC
for the transport of petroleum. The money was made
available through a loan agreement between Weyra and
the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE).
The company, which already has 57 trucks, is
expecting the delivery of the new trucks in one
month, Mesfin Tefera, general manager, told Fortune.
The petrol tanks, which will be locally made, will
be fitted within three months after the arrival of
the trucks, he added.
The trucks are ordered from China National Heavy
Duty Truck Company through its sister company, CGC
Overseas. The Ministry had previously bought 1,000
Sino Trucks, 100 low-beds and 50 units of
construction machinery from this company.
The government decided to make the purchase because
the existing 1,500 tankers were not enough for the
transport of the country’s imported oil, which, for
the past seven years, has been growing at an annual
average of 11pc, according to Ethiopian Petroleum
Enterprise.
The contract, which CGC has awarded to Mesfin
Industrial Engineering Company (belonging to the
Endowment Fund for the Rehabilitation of Tigray -
EFFORT), entails that the vehicles may only be
handed over to Weyra after the petrol tanks have
been fitted to them, according to the Weyra general
manager.
“We have been given the job. We shall deliver the
tanks in a short time,” said Tewolde Assefa, general
manager of Mesfin Industrial Engineering Company.
Weyra is one of the five freight companies that have
been formed after the former Cargo Transport
Enterprise was liquidated. The other four were
Comet, Shebele, Bekelcha Transport and Addis
Mechanical Company, which has currently been
privatised.
Weyra has a strategy to replace all trucks with new
and better ones, Mesfin says.
The company was selected as the best oil transporter
of 2009 by OiLibya for 2009 and second best by
TOTAL. |
