During his visit to the Suez Canal Economic Zone, Prime Minister Dr. Mostafa Madbouly. On Thursday, January 11, a visit to the Ezz Steel Factory in Ain Sokhna.

The Prime Minister was accompanied during the visit by Lieutenant General Kamel Al-Wazir, Minister of Transport, and Mr. Walid Gamal El-Din, Chairman of the Economic Authority for the Development of the Suez Canal.

He was received by Afaf Ezz, the group’s business development manager. Saher Al-Far, Managing Director of the company, and Hossam Fahmy, Deputy General Manager for Technical Affairs. Madbouly inspected the second phase of the company’s projects specialized in heavy industries, and listened to a presentation on the group’s development work.

During the visit, Dr. Mostafa Madbouly inspected the new smelting furnace that was added to the factory in 2023 at an investment cost of 5 billion pounds, which resulted in an increase in steel production in the factory by about 1.6 million tons, completely directed to export.

Afaf Ezz explained that the total investments in the Ezz Steel complexes in Sokhna, Dekheila and Sadat City amounted to about 5.9 billion dollars, and the company’s total steel production reached about 6.2 million tons in 2023, making it the largest steel producer in the Arab world.

It includes 2.8 million tons of lengths of rebar, 2.3 million tons of hot-rolled flat steel, and 800,000 tons of coiled steel wire. She also noted that the total number of workers in the company is about 10,000 workers. Almost half of them are engineers and technicians.

She added that the company achieved exports estimated at about $1.5 billion in 2023. The company’s exports are expected to reach $1.75 billion by the end of 2024, as the company’s products are exported to 35 countries, such as (Spain, Italy, the United States of America, and Turkey).

She also confirmed that the company is keen on using clean energy. Which supports exports to Europe, where the company uses reduced iron technology using natural gas and electric energy in smelting furnaces.

The Supreme Council of Energy quickly approved the allocation of 200 megawatts to operate the company’s new smelting furnace. This confirms that the Egyptian industry has benefited from the historical investments made by the state in the field of energy in recent years.

The first industrial respirator developed and produced by the Ezz Steel Group was also reviewed. It was explained that the device is the first device of its kind to be manufactured in Egypt. It was noted that 50% of the licenses for the device have been terminated. Once the licenses are completed, the device will be produced in large quantities, about 2,000 devices per year. In order to cover the needs of the local market, in addition to allocating part of the production for export.

In this context, Madbouly praised the steps in manufacturing the device. He stressed that it is consistent with the state’s efforts to reduce the import bill and contribute to saving foreign currency.

At the conclusion of his tour of the company, the Prime Minister listened to an explanation regarding the company’s future expansion plans. Which includes implementing two new projects, the first is a project to establish a new hot-rolled flat factory with a production capacity of one million tons annually. The project aims to raise the group’s production capacity to 3.3 million tons annually, to cover exports and meet the expected growth in the local market. In addition to adding a chemical treatment unit to increase the local added value. While the second project includes establishing a steel sheet factory with a production capacity of one million tons annually. In order to meet local demand in the field of shipbuilding, maritime shipping, construction, and gas tanks.