Friday, December 6, 2024

Low bid entry sees ESLSE putting a pin on truck procurement

Ethiopian Shipping and Logistics Service Enterprises (ESLSE) annuls the bidding process to procure 150 heavy-duty trucks. The enterprise disclosed that the international bid will be refloated with some revisions in the bid document.
It is to be recalled that the logistics mammoth and multimodal monopoly invited international sellers to compete on the bid to supply 150 trucks for its cross-border operation.
A few weeks back, the enterprise stated that a technical evaluation had been undertaken before opening the financial offer. However last week ESLSE officials in a turn of events disclosed that the bidding process had been terminated owing to the low number of participating companies.
Wondimu Denbu, Deputy CEO for Corporate Service, told Capital that the enterprise was forced to stop the process because only one company submitted its bid documents to supply the trucks.
According to insights, the Chinese vehicle-manufacturing giant, Jinan Sinotruck Co. was the only company that came through with its offer.
Jinan Sinotruck Co, which is known for its heavy-duty trucks, Sinotrucks, was the company that won last year’s bid to supply 150 Sinotruck vehicles at the cost of 11 USD million.
Wondimu said that ESLSE will refloat the bid for another round, “if the coming bidding process will not be successful the enterprise will look for another alternative as per the country procurement rules.”
He said that the second-round bidding will take place with some revisions from the former bid document.
On the initiative embarked by the Ministry of Transport and Logistics that allowed 168 transport companies to import 3,200 general cargo trucks through a differed letter of credit (LC), ESLSE has engaged in the bidding process to buy its quota, 150 trucks. However, the actual demand of the enterprise is over 300 brand new trucks.
As per the differed LC scheme the enterprise has opened the LC by 30 percent of the procurement value and the balance will be paid in the coming two years’ time. The government has given the guarantee for the payment that will be settled in the timeframe given by the scheme.
Currently, 38 trucks that are directly bought from the Chinese manufacturer at the cost of the same winning price of last year’s bid are being transported to Djibouti. According to the country procurement rule, the enterprise has a right to conduct up to 25 percent additional direct purchase from the bid winning supplier, “that is the advantage we applied to procure additional 38 trucks, besides the 150 Sino trucks, which are already in the operation,” officials of ESLSE recently told Capital.
Currently, ESLSE has 450 operation heavy-duty trucks and the new coming 38 trucks will increase the number to 488.
About five years ago, 215 trucks were purchased from the French automotive company, Renault Trucks. As the norm of ESLSE, the new fleet will allow the enterprise to exclude the long-serving and economically inefficient trucks from its cross-border operation.

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