|
The Industrial Development Authority (IDA) organized an auction on the license of spongy iron and billet between 4 companies on Tuesday 5/2/208 at Semiramis Hotel in Cairo. This was in the presence of IDA Chairman, Eng. Amr Assal and the representatives of the four companies participating in the bidding including: the UAE Al Ghereir Company and the two Indian companies of Arselor Metal and Ithar. On the other hand, IDA granted Mac Holding Company (a subsidiary of the Kuwaiti Kharafi Group) the approval of establishing a factory for iron agglomerates to produce spongy iron at the same bidding price.
 Eng.Assal indicated that IDA's decision-taking committee for steel & iron projects approved the expansion requests of the Egyptian existing companies producing iron
to enhance local manufacturing including: Suez Steel, the Egyptian Spongy Iron, Ezz Steel and Tiba Iron. This comes within the framework of the Ministry of Trade and Industry's policy aiming at enhancing local manufacturing of these products in the Egyptian market to meet the current and future iron requirements up to 2013.
Assal pointed out that the studies, prepared by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, revealed that Egypt's needs of iron products are expected to hit 12 million tons annually by 2013. As such, using spongy iron to manufacture billets becomes the economic alternative of scrap iron, as targeted by the government to alleviate the customer's burden. |