Egyptian industry minister Tarek Qabil launched Tuesday the new steel melt-shop plant of El Marakby for Steel Group for producing billet with investments worth 1.1 billion Egyptian pounds (US$124.2 million) . Minister Qabil stated that the new factory is located in 6th of October City and set to operate with the capacity of 250,000 tonnes and would create 650 direct job opportunities. Qabil noted that the new factory would to cover group's needs of billet to produce rebar since it is expected to save around US$100 million of the annual bill of the group to import billet. 25 percent of new factory production is set to be imported abroad, the minister clarified. On other side, Chairperson of El Marakby Group Hassan El-Marakby added that the group plans boosting the capacity of the new plant to 350,000 tonnes per year within the upcoming period. El Marakby pointed out that opening the new plant comes after conducting a comprehensive studies to enhance such strategic industry since billet is the most important phase in producing steel process. By opening the new melt-shop plant, investments of El Marakby Group would reach two billion pounds, head El Marakby noted.
