155 Years After It Opened… Sugar Production Stops at the Abu Qurqas Factory in Minya
Minya Governorate announced that the production lines for cane sugar at the Abu Qurqas sugar factory in Minya had stopped working, 155 years after it opened in 1869. The governorate justified this by saying the factory does not obtain the quantities of cane that guarantee its operation, as the quantity of the contracted crop fell to an unprecedented level, with the contracted quantities reaching only about 6,000 tonnes, the crop of approximately 160 feddans, which is not enough to run the factory for a full week.
The factory operates at a production capacity of up to 115,000 tonnes per season during the cane and beet crushing seasons, including 40,000 tonnes of ration sugar during the cane crushing season (by crushing about 350,000 tonnes of cane annually) and 75,000 tonnes during the beet crushing season (the total quantity crushed annually is 550,000 tonnes of beet), covering approximately 34% of Egypt’s total sugar production, in addition to many other products ranging from pure alcohol to animal feed.
The UAE Acquires a Stake in 7 Historic Hotels
The Emirati holding company “ADQ”, part of Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, in cooperation with the ADNEC Group, announced an agreement to acquire a 40.5% stake in the Arab Company for Hotel and Tourism Investments (ICON), considered the hospitality arm of Talaat Moustafa Group Holding (TMGH), which manages several luxury hotels in Egypt.
“ADQ” will obtain a stake in ICON’s current portfolio, which includes important historic hotels it owns. These include the “Four Seasons” hotels in Cairo, Alexandria and Sharm El-Sheikh, in addition to the “Kempinski Nile Hotel”, and there are other properties under construction or design in Cairo, Luxor and Marsa Alam.
Talaat Moustafa Group had announced last December the signing of an agreement to acquire 7 historic hotels with the Egyptian government, represented by the companies “Legacy Hotels” and “EGOTH”, with an acquisition share of 39% to increase within a specified period to 51%, with full management rights.
The two companies own a portfolio of 7 hotels: (Sofitel Legend Old Cataract Aswan, Mövenpick Resort Aswan, Sofitel Winter Palace Luxor, Steigenberger Tahrir Hotel, Steigenberger Cecil Hotel Alexandria, Marriott Mena House Cairo and Marriott Omar Khayyam Zamalek).
Suez Canal Revenues Fall 40%
Osama Rabie, head of the Suez Canal Authority, said the canal’s revenue in dollars has fallen by 40% since the beginning of this year compared with 2023, as a result of attacks by the Houthis in Yemen on ships heading to the Israeli occupation, which led to their voyages being rerouted away from this waterway.
He explained in a television interview that ship traffic fell by 30% in the period from the beginning of January to 11 January year on year, pointing out that the number of ships that crossed the Suez Canal fell to 544 so far this year, compared with 777 ships in the same period last year. He mentioned that International Monetary Fund data showed a 35% decline in the movement of goods through the Suez Canal last week compared with the same period last year, while an increase of 67.5% was recorded in the transport of goods via the Cape of Good Hope route in Africa in the same period.
A report by the “Alternative Policy Solutions” project of the American University in Cairo expected the Egyptian economy to be one of the economies most affected by the slowdown in maritime navigation in Bab el-Mandeb, as Suez Canal revenues are a major source of foreign currency in Egypt, and in the 2022-2023 fiscal year they reached $9.4 billion, an increase of about 35% over the previous year.
The Houthi group targets Israeli commercial ships or those linked to the Israeli occupation authority in the Red Sea in protest at the Israeli attacks on Gaza. As a result, many shipping companies are diverting their ships to other sea routes.
Commodity Prices Expected to Rise by About 15% in Ramadan
Food industry experts confirmed that the impact of the current challenges will appear more strongly on commodity prices during the coming month of Ramadan, with prices rising by about 10 to 15%, while others see the severity of the impact diminishing to less than 4%, stressing that commodities that rely more on imported production inputs, such as oil, face more severe challenges.
Experts attribute the rise in prices in the coming period to the tensions flaring in the Red Sea as a result of Houthi attacks on cargo ships and tankers belonging to the Israeli occupation or its supporters.
Egypt Comments on Military Operations in the Red Sea
The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed its concern at the escalation of military operations in the Red Sea region and the air strikes directed at a number of areas inside Yemeni territory, calling for international and regional efforts to join forces to reduce tension and instability in the region, including the security of navigation in the Red Sea.
Cairo warned of the dangerous and rapid developments in the southern Red Sea region and Yemen, and of the risks of the conflict expanding in the region “as a result of the continued Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip”, stressing the inevitability of a comprehensive ceasefire and an end to the ongoing war against Palestinian civilians, to spare the region more factors of instability, conflict and threats to international peace and security.
The Government Responds to Bogus Demands to Deport Refugees by Counting Their Numbers
In the Egyptian government’s first comment on the online campaigns of unknown origin calling for the deportation of refugees, the government said the campaigns do not represent the Egyptian people and that it will pay them no attention. At the same time, it announced the start of auditing and counting the numbers of refugees on its territory, in order to account for what it called the “costs” it bears as a result of the increasing numbers flowing into Egypt annually.
According to official data, 9 million migrants and refugees from 133 countries live in Egypt, representing 8.7% of the country’s total population. 56% of them are concentrated in the governorates of Greater Cairo, Alexandria, Dakahlia and Damietta, including about 4 million Sudanese, 1.5 million Syrians, one million Yemenis and one million Libyans, representing about 80% of the total number of migrants residing in Egypt.
Online campaigns of unknown origin had been launched at the end of last December calling for the deportation of Syrian and Sudanese refugees from Egypt, claiming they are a main cause of the rise in prices and the high cost of living that has spread in Egypt. But they were met with counter-campaigns by citizens who rejected the deportation of refugees, considering that their presence does not put any pressure on the Egyptian economy and that the crisis stems from the authority’s mismanagement of the economic file.
Annual Inflation in Egyptian Cities Declines
Data published by Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics showed that the annual inflation rate in cities fell to 33.7% in December from 34.6% in November.
On a monthly basis, prices rose 1.4% in December from 1.3% in November. Food prices jumped by 2.1% in December from 0.2% in November, but they rose 60.5% on an annual basis.
A New Cut in Foreign Currency Credit Card Limits
A number of Egyptian banks have cut the limits on using credit cards in foreign currencies, whether for purchases or cash withdrawals, for the second time in 3 months.
Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank and the Commercial International Bank both began applying this decision, with the two banks reducing the monthly limit for international purchase transactions from inside Egypt using credit cards to $50, compared with $250. The Commercial International Bank also reduced the limit for purchases abroad via credit cards to about $500 instead of $1,600, as well as the cash withdrawal limit for using cards abroad to $60.
The Central Bank of Egypt had directed last October that customers stop using debit cards abroad, limiting their use to inside Egypt only, and followed this with a decision to stop credit cards as well. It then went on to fully open the set usage limits for credit cards. It also eased the restrictions previously imposed on using credit cards abroad and cancelled the requirement for customers to submit proof of travel before their departure.
Housing and the UN in a New Agreement to Make Use of Closed Properties
The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) and Egypt’s Social Housing and Mortgage Finance Fund signed a cooperation agreement to support the implementation of the outputs of the national housing strategy regarding the efficient use of the real estate stock of housing units, particularly stimulating rental markets and identifying ways to deal with the issue of closed and vacant units.
The Central Agency for Statistics had announced in 2017 that the number of vacant apartments in Egypt (fully finished or semi-finished) had reached 12 million apartments, 29% of residential apartments in Egypt. Of these, 8,996,000 residential apartments are vacant without an owner or tenant, including 4,662,000 complete vacant units and 4,334,000 vacant units without finishing, meaning that 20.9% of the total units in residential buildings are vacant, of which 10.8% are complete vacant units and 10.1% are vacant units without finishing, while 1.4% of total building units are vacant and need restoration. As for the number of apartments closed because the family has a second apartment, the report revealed 2,887,000 residential units closed because the family has another residence, at a rate of 6.7%, while 1,159,000 residential units are closed because the family is abroad, at a rate of 2.7%.
Joint Egyptian-Chinese Recommendations on Gaza
Bilateral talks were held between Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the war raging in the Gaza Strip on Egypt’s eastern border.
The talks resulted in a number of recommendations, namely:
- The need for an immediate and complete ceasefire.
- Stopping all acts of violence and killing and the targeting of civilians and civilian facilities.
- Rejecting and condemning all violations of international law, including international humanitarian law and international human rights law, including the individual and collective forcible transfer and forced displacement of Palestinians from their land.
- Affirming the call for the release of hostages and detainees on both sides.
- Affirming the importance of rapid, safe, sustainable and unimpeded access of humanitarian aid in sufficient quantities to the Gaza Strip, and implementing Security Council Resolution 2720, including its establishment of the necessary humanitarian mechanisms in the Strip.
Parliament Discusses a New Law on “Recovered Funds”
Parliament discussed the draft law submitted by the government to issue a law establishing an agency to manage and dispose of recovered and seized funds. It is concerned with managing assets whose ownership has passed to the state through the Sequestration Liquidation Agency (the Central Administration for Agrarian Reform Resources and Compensation in the Finance Sector of the Ministry of Finance) and the Recovered Funds Administration of the General Authority for Government Services, and with investing them to maximise the state’s financial resources. According to the government, the value of these assets equals the budgets of other countries; but there is no accurate, official, published inventory of their value.
First Phase of Towers in the Administrative Capital’s Central Business District Handed Over
Minister of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities Assem El-Gazzar received yesterday, Sunday, the first phase of the towers in the Central Business District of the New Administrative Capital, at a ceremony organised by the Chinese company “CSCEC”, which managed the project.
The first phase of the towers of the Central Business District in the New Administrative Capital includes 3 administrative towers: the first tower is 180 metres tall, the second 174 metres and the third 142 metres.
Madbouly: Claims the Administrative Capital Was Built With State Funds Are Untrue
Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly denied what is being said about the authority using public state funds to build the New Administrative Capital, pointing out that the various real estate development companies are what contributed to building it, and that the profits of the Administrative Capital company exceeded EGP 20 billion this year.
The Administrative Capital covers an area of 170,000 feddans and is planned to accommodate 6.5 million citizens once its construction is complete, at a cost of $60 billion. According to official data, large investments ranging from $75 to $80 billion are allocated to the capital, taking 12 years to implement fully, and the government expects profits it described as huge after offering the first phase, estimated at nine times the money it invested.
At the same time, Madbouly said the government spent half a trillion Egyptian pounds to implement the one million housing units project, in addition to another 300,000 units, as housing for people on low and middle incomes, in an effort to provide adequate housing for citizens and solve the problem of informal and unsafe areas.
A New Free Zone at Ain Sokhna Port
Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly approved the establishment of a private free zone named “Red Sea Container Terminals Company” at Ain Sokhna Port in the Suez Canal Economic Zone, by Decree No. 2 of 2024.
The free zone, which covers an area of 720,000 square metres, is concerned with building and developing the superstructure and using, managing, operating, maintaining and handing back the container terminal at Ain Sokhna Port in the Suez Canal Economic Zone, in accordance with the terms of the concession agreement signed between the company and the General Authority for the Suez Canal Economic Zone, with the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones following up the works and the progress of work.
A Finance Ministry Decision on Imported Goods
The Ministry of Finance said it has obliged importers to follow European and American standards in the quality specifications of commodities and goods, in order to protect local markets from poor products.
The statement indicated that the period from January to 29 December 2023 saw the customs release of goods worth about $72 billion, including strategic commodities worth $19.1 billion and production requirements and raw materials worth $33.3 billion. On the other hand, the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics revealed a decline in the import bill, as the value of Egyptian imports recorded $46.3 billion in the first seven months of 2023, compared with $57.9 billion in the same period of 2022, a decline of $11.6 billion, or 20.1%.
