Egypt studies granting around 12 new licenses for cement production within the coming three months, the Industrial Development Authority's vice chairman announced Tuesday. IDA's vice chairman Magdy Ghazy made his remarks in a telephone interview on Tuesday with Dina Abdel Fattah's ‘Kol Al Zawaya' programme at Al-Nahar TV channel. He said the North African country aims to avoid witnessing a possible gap between the factories' cement production and growing consumption rates. Within 2020, the cement consumption rates in Egypt are expected to reach 80 million tonnes, Ghazy stated. The production capacity for each licence is set to reach 1.5 million tonnes annually, with total investments worth 12 billion Egyptian pounds (US$1.6 billion), he added. Several of Egypt's major cement producers have begun retrofitting their plants to run on energy from imported coal, beating high gas prices and energy shortages that have curbed industrial output last year. Egypt has been suffering from an energy crisis in recent years as supply from state-owned Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) has been intermittent and power blackouts commonplace.
