Business
商业
Shipping in east Africa
东非海运
Ocean ahoy!
喂！大海
Losing its coast has not stopped Ethiopia developing its shipping
失去海岸綫并未使埃塞俄比亚停止其海运的发展
ETHIOPIA became landlocked in 1992, when its Red Sea coast was lost to the new state of Eritrea. It lost access to its former ports soon afterwards. Since the outbreak of a vicious two-year war between the two countries in 1998, the Red Sea ports of Massawa and Assab have been off-limits to Ethiopian freight (see map). Instead, Ethiopia has to rely on Djibouti for imports and exports. That comes at a heavy price: it costs more to truck a container from Djibouti to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital, than to ship the same container from China to Djibouti.
1992年，厄立特里亚国新成立，从埃塞俄比亚手中取得红海海岸，使埃塞俄比亚变成了内陆国家。随后埃塞俄比亚失去了进入那些曾经属于它的港口的权力。后两国又爆发了一场持续两年的恶战，马萨瓦和阿萨布在红海岸的港口均已禁止埃塞俄比亚进行货运（详看地图）。相反的，埃塞俄比亚开始依赖吉布提国进行进出口的贸易。然而这一举措带来了高昂的价格：同一个货物，从吉布提运输一个集装箱到亚的斯亚贝巴（埃塞俄比亚首都）的成本，远比其从中国运到吉布提要高。
But losing the coastline has not scuppered Ethiopia's merchant fleet. The state-owned Ethiopian Shipping Lines (ESL) has eight ships afloat and nine under construction in China. That is modest compared with the armadas of the biggest shipping firms. But having any sort of ocean-going capability is good for national pride. At ESL's Addis headquarters, complete with portholes and model ships, the outgoing boss, Ambachew Abraha, remembers proudly his days as an engineer aboard the freighter Queen of Sheba. "She was a real beauty," he says. "With her I sailed to Rotterdam, Hull, Middlesborough."
失去海岸线并未使埃塞俄比亚的商船队遭到重创。埃塞俄比亚本身拥有的运输线（ESL）有8条货船处于运输状态，同时还有9条尚在中国建造中。这一规模堪比世界上最大的海运线——西班牙无敌舰队。只要拥有任何程度上远航能力都可以提升民族自豪感。在ESL艾缔思的总部，装饰有舷窗和模型船，ESL的总裁埃姆拜初 阿布拉哈（Ambachew Abraha）自豪地回忆其在示巴女王货轮上作为一名工程师的日子。"她是真正的美，"他回忆道，"我随她出航到鹿特丹港市，赫尔，米德尔斯堡。"
Mr Abraha was recently replaced as part of a shake-up of the company, which has seen a portfolio of state-owned transit and warehousing facilities added to it. The aim is to offset the high freight costs Ethiopian businesses pay by streamlining the entire transport process. A new railway is planned from Djibouti to Addis, and dry ports inside Ethiopia will allow goods to pass more quickly out of Djibouti, cutting the price of storage and customs.
阿布拉哈以国有运输和仓储设备等组合投资取代了部分公司的重大结构。目的是消除埃塞俄比亚商业中整个流水线运输过程支付所支付的高昂的运输成本。一条新的铁路运线将在吉布提到艾缔思，以及埃塞俄比亚境内的各陆港之间建立，以便货物更快运离吉布提，从而减少减少仓储和海关费用。
Last year ESL made a profit of $40m. The new umbrella company looks likely to do even better. But a lot depends on Ethiopia getting more access to blue water. Its trade officials plan to do more business via the port of Berbera in Somaliland, a mostly unrecognised breakaway from Somalia, and with Port Sudan in Sudan. They are also cheered by a Kenyan plan to build a "super-port" at Lamu, a Swahili fishing-town near Kenya's border with Somalia. A new road and railway would connect Lamu with Ethiopia and head on to South Sudan and possibly Uganda.
上一年度ESL创造了4000万美金的利润。这个新的伞型运线公司看起来似乎做得更好。但是更多地依靠于埃塞俄比亚取得了更多通往海洋的道路。ESL的贸易官员计划通过在索马里兰的柏培拉港口进行更多的贸易，一条来源索马里的未知道路，以及苏丹的苏丹港。他们计划在拉姆建造超级港口，一个斯瓦西里渔镇，在肯尼亚靠索马里方向的边境附近，因此得到了肯尼亚人的热烈支持。一条崭新的马路和铁路将连接拉姆和埃塞俄比亚，直通南苏丹，甚至乌干达。
It might also reduce the risk of Ethiopian vessels being captured by Somali pirates. They have so far escaped that fate, perhaps because the pirates fear that the Ethiopians would launch a swift and bloody reprisal. But for all shippers, the threat of Somali piracy has nonetheless pushed up insurance costs and forced vessels to make expensive detours.
这也许将减少埃塞俄比亚遭到索马里海盗打劫的风险。他们一直以来都不曾遭到这样的厄运，大概海盗们担心埃塞俄比亚会发起一场迅速血腥的报复。但是对于所有的运货商来说，索马里海盗的威胁依旧增加了保险成本，并且船只被迫地进行昂贵的绕道航行。
ESL handles 45% of Ethiopia's shipping. Most of this is on the company's own vessels, but some space is bought from other shipping lines. China is financing ESL's new vessels, which will have improved cranes and holds for handling more complex cargoes, such as the colossal turbines needed to build Ethiopia's new hydroelectric dams. Many of ESL's ships leave Africa emptier than when they arrived, but that is changing. The shipping company hopes to increase its exports of coffee, grain, minerals, leather and textiles.
ESL占有了埃塞俄比亚45%的海运。大部分来自于公司自有的船只，仅一部分是从其他航线购买的。中国提供了ESL的新货轮建造经费，这些货轮拥有先进的起重设备，并且可用于处理更加复杂的货物，比如建造埃塞俄比亚新的水电站所需要的巨型涡轮。许多ESL的船只离开非洲时比他们刚到达时要空许多，但是这在改变。航运公司希望增加其咖啡，粮食，矿产，皮革及防治的出口。
Ethiopia's maritime ambitions are not limited to ESL. A school for sailors has been set up at a university in the lakeside town of Bahir Dar. It has ambitions to train 5,000 ship's engineers and other officers for the world's fleets within the next decade-providing low-cost competition for Sri Lankan and Filipino sailors. The government reckons these sailors could send home $250m a year in salaries. They would also return, as Mr Abraha has, with valuable skills and a hankering for the briny unusual in a landlocked country.
埃塞俄比亚的海事雄心并不只局限于ESL公司。在巴希尔达镇的湖边，一所大学设立了培养水手的学院。它立志于在未来十年为全世界的船只培养5000艘船只的工程师及其他方面的海事官员——与斯里兰卡和菲律宾的水手形成低成本的竞争。改过政府预计这些水手将每年从薪水中抽2500万美金寄回家。他们将来也会回归，正如阿布拉哈一样，带着宝贵的技术，以及异于陆路国家的对于大海的追求。