Ethiopia's national cargo shipping company is the Ethiopian Shipping and Logistics Services Enterprise (ESLSE), which is also known as Ethiopian Shipping Lines in business. It is noteworthy that it has continued to operate despite the fact that Ethiopia became a landlocked nation in 1993; The Port of Djibouti and Berbera in Somaliland are currently its primary bases.
When Ethiopia and Eritrea formed a federation in 1952, Ethiopia regained a portion of the Red Sea coastline. However, the Ethiopian Shipping Lines joint venture with the American company Towers Perrin was not established until 1965. Similar to the arrangement that was in place at the time with TWA to manage Ethiopian Airlines, a Dutch company was hired to run the line.

The Queen of Sheba, Lion of Judah, and Lalibela were the three ships that were used to begin operations in 1966. When the Suez Canal was closed in 1967, the Line faced immediate and significant difficulties. The ships had to travel all the way around the Cape until the Suez Canal was reopened. The company lost money because the ships were too big to take such long trips. In order to encourage international trade, the ESL has primarily focused on domestic import and export since then. In general, it has been profitable.