Egypt

For decades Egypt has been a significant energy exporter and one of the MENA region’s largest centres for manufacturing, with the latter having traditionally benefitted significantly from the former. Sizeable reserves of natural gas and crude have allowed the country to provide energy at low prices to large industrial consumers, such as steel and cement producers. However,...

Heavy industry has been one of Egypt’s traditional stalwart sectors, with a lineage dating back decades and several large capacity facilities, and nowhere is this more evident than in steel. Egypt produced 6.8m tonnes of steel in 2013, up from 6.6m tonnes in 2012 and 6.5m tonnes in 2011, and nudging it up to the word’s 23rd biggest steel producer, from 24th and overtaking the...

The most populous country in the MENA region has not only its second-biggest economy, but also one of its most diversified. The manufacturing industry is a central part of Egypt’s economic engine, producing goods for the huge domestic market and for export across the world. The sector was affected by the difficult post-revolution years, which slowed domestic market demand...

Over the past year the shortfall in Egypt’s electricity capacity has become increasingly apparent, with load-shedding becoming a regular occurrence. The government has aggressively sought to address the issue with demand-side management, from a reintroduction of the daylight savings time regime, which had been dropped in 2011, to an initiative to replace standard light bulbs...

Solar energy has played a secondary role to wind power within Egypt’s renewables strategy for some time, despite the nation’s obvious advantages in terms of abundant sunlight and large tracts of undeveloped land. In 2014, however, brought a number of clear indicators that suggest that solar power remains very much front and centre in the government’s vision for the energy...

Over the course of 2014 Egypt’s energy sector has seen some welcome developments. The announcement of a debt-repayment programme for funds owed to international oil companies (IOCs) has restored confidence in the upstream segment and brought pledges of increased investment from larger operators such as the UK’s BP.