In two reports he submitted to Attorney General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud, President of the Central Auditing Organization(CAO) Gawdat al-Malt accused a prominent member of President Hosni Mubarak's regime of monopolizing the steel market In statements to the press Wednesday, al-Malt said the two reports show that Ahmed Ezz, former secretary of organization of the National Democratic Party, who owns three steel companies, monopolized the steel industry. Al-Malt added that he had previously sent the two reports to People's Assembly Speaker Fathi Sorour on 29 May 2004 and 15 September 2004. His companies account for 54.9 percent of the total production of steel in the country, according to statistics released in 2003. According to the report, the imposition of anti-dumping duties on steel imports curbed imports and allowed Egyptian companies to control the market and set their prices. Those prices were most often raised at a rate higher than the rate of increase in cost, he said.
