In a bid to bolster its market share, Egypt-based steel maker, Egyptian Steel, is likely to launch two new steel plants by the middle of next year, it emerged on Wednesday.
This move will see capacity being raised to 3.5 million tonnes a year, Chairman Ahmed Abou Hashima told Reuters.
The company is poised to open a $460 million factory in the Nile city of Beni Suef this July or August with an annual capacity of 1.36 million tonnes. This is in addition to its other factories in Port Said and Alexandria.
According to Reuters, there is likelihood the company will also start another plant in Ain Sukhna on the Red Sea by mid-2016. “We are seeking to acquire 20-25 percent of market share after production starts in all of these factories,” Reuters quoted Abou Hashima as having said.
Egyptian Steel currently has 10 percent market share in the North African country. “There is strong demand in the market and we expect that there will be growth,”
Abou Hashima told Reuters. Abou Hashima added that the company was considering the viability of launching a fifth plant that would be fired by coal.
He is also involved in organising an investment conference in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in March this year that the government hopes will attract billions of dollars of cash.
Source Ventures-Africa