The new Tadjoura Port of Djibouti began this week serving northern Ethiopian regions allowing the country to import and export non-containerized goods, says the Ministry of Transport of Ethiopia.
The Port is designed to handle non-containerized goods such as coal, steel, potash and the like. Last month the Port has handled its first shipment of some 25,000 metric tons of steel last month, according to the Ministry of Transportation of Ethiopia. A few weeks ago Ethiopia has also used Tadjoura Port to import 50,000 metric tons of coal and two ships with over 25,000 metric tons of steel.
Tadjoura Port can handle up to 2,000 tons of potash per hour. The road linking Tadjoura Port with the northern part of Ethiopia, which is 80 kilometers long, was inaugurated last November. Compare to the current Port of Djibouti, the Tadjoura port will be the closest to Tigray and Afar regions of Ethiopia.
It is expected to benefit Ethiopia by allowing the country to quickly transport its potash products to the port for export. The Ministry in its statement indicated that Ethiopia in the future will plan to use the Tadjoura Port for importing and exporting of wheat, sugar and fertilizers.
Mainly with the support and loan from the Government of China, over the past few years the Government of Djibouti has been investing on expansion of specialized ports, including ports that only handle containerized goods, liquid and non-containerized items.