Egypt 3rd largest projects market in MENA

CAIRO – 7 June 2021: Egypt was the third largest projects market in the MENA region, with about $14.9 billion worth of contract awards in 2020, according to data revealed during the launch of The Big 5 Construct Egypt which will take place on June 26 – 29.

This data comes in Egypt Project Market Outlook: 2021, in partnership with Meed Projects and supported by Egypt’s Ministry of Housing and The Big 5 Construct Egypt.

It noted that between 2016 and 2020, a total of $91.2 billion contracts were awarded, with an annual average of $18.4 billion.

“The largest single sector has historically been construction followed by power and transport,” it added, stating that the market hit its peak in 2018 with $26.2bn worth of contracts awarded.

As for the impact of coronavirus on the market, it noted that the impact of Covid-19 pandemic and low oil prices resulted in a 2.3 per cent decline in 2020 but on the whole, the projects market maintained the momentum.

Regarding current figures, it clarified that there are currently about $435.9 billion worth of projects planned or under way in Egypt, making it the third largest in the MENA region.

“The largest current sector in terms of work under execution is construction with $35.1bn worth of work underway, followed by transport at $17.8 billion. The largest single client is Egypt Ministry of Housing Utilities & Urban Communities with $48 billion worth of projects currently under construction.” The data showed.

It clarified that China State Construction & Engineering Corporation is the biggest contractor in terms of contracts in hand at $5.7 billion of contracts under execution.

Project activity has been a bright spot for the Egyptian economy in recent years and spending is expected to continue with foreign funding in the future. Also, with strong demographic and economic growth combined with being as a net gas exporter, the outlook for the Egyptian projects market is rosy, it referred.

The data clarified that the pipeline of known planned and un-awarded projects in Egypt is $354.8 billion making it the third biggest market in the MENA region. “Of this total, $166.2 billion is in construction, $64.3 billion in transport and $59.1 billion in oil and gas.”

The pipeline consists of $14.2 billion projects in bidding, $209.5 billion in design or FEED, and $131.1 billion under study, according to the data.