Chinese fiberglass firm starts new production line in Egypt

CAIRO – 9 January 2018: Chinese fiberglass company Jushi started working on the fourth phase of its production cycle of fiberglass in Egypt, Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade Tarek Kabil announced Tuesday.

"The fourth phase includes grinding raw material and manufacturing packaging materials," Kabil said, stating that the actual operations of Jushi’s facility will start in the next few months.

With the aim of expanding its factory in the Red Sea resort of Ain Sokhna, which was originally established in 2014, the General Authority of the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) signed in September a $60 million contract with China Jushi.

Jushi’s factory was built over 146,000 square meters with $520 million in total investment, producing 200,000 tons of glass per year and creating over 2,000 job opportunities.

China has always been a key economic partner for Egypt over the past four years. In late 2013, Chinese Vice President, Li Yuanchao, announced giving Egypt a non-refundable grant of $24.7 million.

In December 2014, President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi signed a comprehensive strategic partnership agreement with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, including three cooperation agreements in the fields of economy and technical cooperation. Sisi and Jinping exchanged several visits since then.

Egypt ranked 52nd in the list of China's largest trading partners in 2016, according to the latest statistics released by the Chinese General Administration of Customs.

Economic relations between Cairo and Beijing are deemed strong. The volume of trade exchange between Egypt and China recorded $5.178 billion from January to June 2017.

China's exports to Egypt decreased by 20.79 percent on a year-on-year basis to $4.518 billion, while Chinese imports from Egypt increased by 298.37 percent to reach $660 million.