Mercedes to resume Egypt assembly “soon”, senior exec says

Mercedes-Benz could soon resume the assembly of passenger cars in Egypt after a years-long hiatus, production chain boss Markus Schaefer told Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly, according to a Cabinet statement. The meeting came after Schaefer met President Abdel Fattah El Sisi in December. The luxury car maker shut down its assembly line in mid-2015 amid FX shortages and as completely built-up cars (CBUs) were made cheaper in light of falling tariffs on EU cars, which hit zero earlier this month. Efforts to bring the company back as part of a 100-200k sqm dedicated auto manufacturing area in the Suez Canal Economic Zone have been ongoing. The company “agreed in principle” in 2017 to resume assembly.