Turkey's Brisa to invest in Egypt Brisa Bridgestone Sabanci Lastik Sanayi & Ticaret AS, which makes tires in Turkey, may build a new plant in Egypt because Turkish labor costs are too high, the company s co-owner said. A Turkish tire worker costs about $50,000 a year, among the world s most expensive, and this makes it difficult for Turkey-based companies to compete with rivals that produce in Romania or Poland, Guler Sabanci, chairwoman of Haci Omer Sabanci Holding AS, told reporters in Istanbul. Brisa is a joint venture of Sabanci Holding and Japan s Bridgestone Corp. "Egypt is one of the alternatives, we ve been looking and working on it all the time, Sabanci said. An Egyptian worker costs less than $5,000 annually, according to a chart sent by Sabanci s press office. Brisa halted production at its plant in Izmit, northwest Turkey for two weeks in June after pay talks with labor unions broke down. "We face the same problem every two years, Sabanci said, adding that labor costs in tire making are higher than other businesses because of the industry s history. -Bloomberg CSL awarded subsea support project in Egypt Subsea project management and engineering company CSL is delivering its first subsea operations support project in Egypt on Burullus Gas Company's (Burullus) Simian field, 114 km offshore Idku, reported YourProjectNews.com. CSL has been contracted by sister company, DOF Egypt, to provide procurement services, project management and engineering support to Burullus, a joint venture between Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (50 percent), BG Group (25 percent) and Petronas (25 percent). The contract is worth £750,000. The project involves the replacement of two glycol filtration units (GFUs) which prevent blockages in the pipelines that serve the Simian field's subsea developments. CSL will utilize an Egyptian workforce for the fabrication, assembly and test of the replacement GFUs and will provide on-site supervision of the work. As well as managing interfaces with the project contractors, CSL will provide engineering and construction representation throughout the offshore phase of the project which will be carried out in a water depth of 825 meters by ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) from Burullus' subcontracted vessel, Saipem's DP Reel. The offshore phase of the project commenced at the beginning of August 2008 with completion scheduled for early September. TMG: pre-sales may jump to LE 15 bln Talaat Moustafa Group (TMG) expects pre-sales at its existing real estate projects to reach LE 15 billion by the end of 2008, Zawya Dow Jones quoted its head of investor relations Sherif Bolbol as saying. This number is LE 2.5 billion more than its previous target for 2008. Meanwhile, TMG is seeking a local partner for its Eastern European expansion, Bloomberg reported. TMG has shortlisted several countries for new ventures, including Montenegro and Ukraine. Mobinil to join Zain's One Network Subscribers to Zain Saudi, which began operations in Saudi Arabia earlier this week, will be able to enjoy the benefits of its One Network service by using Mobinil's network in Egypt, Zain Saudi's CEO Marwan Alahmadi told a press conference. Zain is Saudi Arabia's third mobile operator. In its daily market wrap-up, EFG-Hermes reported that One Network allows subscribers to make calls and send SMSs at local rates and receive calls free of charge when traveling in member countries. The service is automatically activated when Zain subscribers cross borders with no need for pre-registration, extra fees or roaming deposits. The service was originally launched by Zain Group in Africa through its fully-owned subsidiary Celtel and in the Middle East is now offered in Jordan, Bahrain, Iraq, Sudan and Saudi Arabia. Insurance companies' net profits, chemical exports rise Investment Minister Mahmoud Mohieldin said net profits of the Egyptian Insurance companies grew by 23 percent in fiscal year 2007/2008, however, the insurance sector still constitutes only 1 percent of Egypt's GDP, reported Al-Masry Al-Youm. Rachid Mohammed Rachid, Minister of Trade and Industry, said exports of the chemical sector in the first half of 2008 rose 25 percent year-on-year to LE 10.45 billion, according to Mist News. Dongfeng Nissan to export 900 cars to Egypt Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Company, a 50/50 joint venture between Nissan Motor Co and Dongfeng Motor Corp, will export 900 Nissan cars to Egypt starting next month, said sina.com. Their first batch is scheduled to be shipped to Egypt in September, said Sharon Shen, a spokeswoman for Nissan China. These Chinese-made Nissan cars will be sold by Nissan dealers in Egypt. The 900 Nissan passenger vehicles will include 400 Livina cars and 500 Sylphy cars, all of them were made at the joint venture s Huadu plant in southern China's Guangdong province. Nissan s new global growth strategy encourages its Chinese partners to boost exports. Nissan has a commercial vehicle joint venture in central Chinese city of Zhengzhou. It will be the second time that Dongfeng Nissan is set to export China-made Nissan cars. In August 2006, the joint venture firstly exported 1,000 Tiida cars to Angola. Eye on the market Six of October Investment and Development (SODIC) acquired a 100 percent of El Yoosr co., a projects and agriculture development company, in a deal worth LE 312.57 million ($ 58.3 million). Nasr City Housing will carry out its planned purchase of up to 1 million shares of its 100 million outstanding shares from Aug. 28-Sept. 27, it announced to the Egyptian stock exchange yesterday. Mena Touristic and Real Estate Investment announced in a statement sent to the stock exchange that the company bought a plot of land on the North Coast through an auction held on Aug.t 24 for the favor of Arab International Bank. The land extends over 122,000 square meters, for a total value of LE 40 million ($7.5 million).
