70% of steel, cement factories’ production goes to mega projects

CAIRO – 25 April 2018: Seventy percent of the production of steel and cement factories is currently directed to the big national projects that the state is implementing, Ahmed El-Zeiny, the head of building materials at the Cairo Chamber of Commerce said Wednesday.

Had it not been for these projects, many factories would have stopped operating, he said.

As for cement prices, Zeiny said that cement is currently sold to customers at LE 950 per ton, with this price increasing to LE 1,000 to customers in some governorates due to transportation costs.

He expected prices to drop with the full operation of the Beni Suef factory as well as Sinai factories in the coming period. He added that demand on building materials in general drops in the fasting month of Ramadan.

The Islamic holy month of Ramadan is due to start on May 17.

Egypt has been executing a big number of national projects in the last few years. Some 3,195 national projects have been executed in the last four years, costing LE 667 billion, presidential aide for national and strategic projects Ibrahim Mahlab said last month.

He added that works are currently underway to finish 1,229 projects, with a cost of LE 1.5 trillion, bringing the total national projects to 4,424 projects.

Since he came to office in 2014, President Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi has announced many mega projects to help accelerate the development process.

Two months after taking office, he announced a $8.2 billion project to dig a new extension to the Suez Canal, to expand its capacity to 97 ships per day.

Other remarkable projects include the New Administrative Capital, the Suez Canal Economic Zone, the1.5 million feddan reclamation project and Ghalioun fish farming project.