Egypt eyes cooperation with Belarus on electric bus production

CAIRO – 10 October 2023: Minister of Transport held talks Monday evening with the Belarusian ambassador to Cairo to discuss establishing an electric bus factory in Alexandria's Borg Al Arab as well as modernizing state-owned workshops that carry out maintenance for trucks.  

The ambassador also expressed the desire of Belarusian companies to set up grain silos in one of the Egyptian seaports that could be either East Port Said, Dekheila, or Gargoub. The silos would cater to local demand, and be used in export to Africa as well.

Alarabia for Trading, Manufacturing, and Transportation Services (ATM Misr) and China's King Long launched in February a factory for the production of buses and other types of vehicles with investments worth LE1 billion.

The factory spans over 164,000 feddans, its production capacity in the first year is 500, and provides employment for 12,000. The local component is 60 percent, and the production will be targeted at GCC countries and North Africa.

In a similar context, the Ministry of State for Military Production announced in June 2021 finishing the production of the first locally made electric bus in collaboration with Manufacturing Commercial Vehicles Co. (MCV), a private firm that has been producing buses for 25 years.

The minister clarified that the local component in that bus was 60 percent. He elaborated that the design was made by Egyptian engineers, and that the exterior and interior of the skeleton were manufactured in Egyptian factories. Those include windows, tires, chairs, fibers, and the metal body.