Despite the challenging economic environment, the Egyptian steel sector demonstrated surprising resilience. The country increased crude steel production in both July and the first seven months of 2023. Nevertheless, the pressure on mills has been growing day by day.

Egypt produced 5.6 million t of crude steel in January-July 2023, indicating a 2% increase in volumes year-on-year, Such developments are explained by the strategy of mills to intensify their overseas presence. “To get maximum profit under the sharp local currency depreciation, the Egyptian mills are following an aggressive export policy. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. It is the market. For sure, the export prospects are brighter than local ones if we are talking about financial benefits.
The statistics of DRI production only proved such shifts as most of the export business is handled by big integrated mills. DRI output hit 4 million t over the reported period, gaining 16.5% y-o-y.
July results contributed to the development of the positive trend: the crude steel production hit 855,016 t, up 20.8% y-o-y and 4% month-on-month. The dynamics of DRI output were even more impressive as the volumes gained 55% y-o-y and 7% m-o-m, coming to 635,689 tonnes
Further developments are hardly predictable, taking into account the continuing pressure of economic factors on the Egyptian steel business.