Chinese firm wants to invest $30M in electric cars in Egypt

CAIRO – 22 November 2017: A Chinese car manufacturer has expressed interest to invest $30 million in electric car manufacturing in Egypt, the Federation of Egyptian Industries (FEI) announced Wednesday.

In a conference organized by the FEI, Executive Director of the federation Khaled Abdel Azim said that the Chinese company asked about possibility of cooperating with local companies that can supply them with needed components.

"Several Chinese car companies negotiated with Minister of Industry Tarek Kabil to enter the Egyptian market," Head of the Car Dealers Association Hussein Mostafa said in August.

"As part of its automotive industry strategy, Egypt targets the manufacture of 500,000 cars annually by 2022, of which 100,000 will be exported," Kabil said in September.
Egypt wants to attract $5 billion in investment in that sector and increase exports to $3 billion on an annual basis.

Car exports reached $69 million in the first seven months of 2017, while it stood at $129 million in 2016.

Meanwhile, exports of feeding industries recorded $286 million from January to July 2017 and $525 million in 2016.

Car importers and distributors were negatively affected by the floatation of the Egyptian pound in November 2016 and the interest rates hike that followed.

Recession in the car market sales and volatile custom dollar exchange rate have led to the continuous decline in car imports, while sales of locally-assembled cars hiked 51 percent in the first half (H1) of 2017, compared to H1 2016.