Good morning, friends. We hope you’ve had a fantastic week as we prepare to slide into a holiday long weekend here in Omm El Donia.

EnterpriseAM is off tomorrow along with EnterprisePM, but we’ll slide into your inboxes with our Enterprise Weekend Edition at 9am CLT. Enterprise Climate and Enterprise Logistics, which cover regional industries, will also publish tomorrow. We’ll be back to our normal schedule on Sunday.

It’s our last holiday of 2024 — make the most out of it, wonderful people. Also: Happy Thanksgiving (a couple of days early) to all of our Canadian friends.

WATCH THIS SPACE-

Emergency measures to curb food price inflation could be days away: The government will announce next week new measures aimed at putting a lid on the soaring prices of basic goods, cabinet said yesterday. The statement didn’t provide many clues about what rules will be put in place but said they will be coordinated by key ministers, the Central Bank of Egypt, manufacturers and traders. This came following a meeting between Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly, central bank governor Hassan Abdalla, the supply, finance, trade ministers, and business representatives.

What they’re saying: “We will work together to ensure that there is an abundance of various commodities in the markets, which will contribute to lower prices, especially food commodities…we will participate together in developing solutions that ensure a decrease in the prices of basic commodities,” Madbouly said. Agreements will be made with various commercial chains, Supply Minister Ali El Moselhy added, with “the goal of making the consumer feel a real reduction in prices.”

Flooding the market: Authorities will try to control prices of nine basic commodities from next week, according to Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce secretary-general Alaa Ezz, who gave several interviews on the airwaves last night to discuss the plans. According to Ezz, large quantities of oil, sugar, rice, pasta, beans and dairy will be pumped into supermarkets in a bid to tamp-down prices, he said.

Remember: Food price inflation is soaring at a record rate on the back of a series of currency devaluations, the FX crunch, and a shortage of raw materials. Authorities have in recent days taken action to curb sugar prices, and have banned onion exports until the end of the year.

IT’S A BIG DAY FOR ENERGY NEWS-

#1- Egypt will resume LNG exports this month, Oil Minister Tarek El Molla told Reuters yesterday.

Time + quantity TBA: “We are still arranging and preparing for that, quantities are not yet defined,” he said.

We want to be a regional gas power: Egypt has moved to position itself as one of Europe’s key energy partners — and we’re looking to increase exports of Egyptian and Israeli gas across the Mediterranean.

But this has been hard this year: We have exported hardly any LNG over the summer months due to higher domestic consumption and lower gas production. The seasonal spike in demand, combined with production falling to three-year lows, has put pressure on the electricity grid, forcing the government to introduce rolling blackouts since July.

#2- Some good news on Egypt’s green hydrogen front: Egypt will operate its first green hydrogen facility in 2026, an Electricity Ministry source confirmed to Enterprise Climate yesterday. Trial stages at the unidentified facility are set to begin in mid-2025, our source said. The news was first reported by Youm7.

Aiming big: Egypt aims to produce up to 1.5 mn tons of green hydrogen per year by 2030 through 19 GW of generated energy from solar and wind projects. The country aims to raise production to 5.8 mn tons by 2040 from 72 GW of generated renewable energy. This would allow the export of 3.8 mn tons, which would account for 5% of the global green hydrogen market, according to Youm7’ssource.

#3- OPEC+ meeting today: OPEC+ is expected to maintain oil production cuts during today’s meeting. Saudi Arabia and Russia’s decision to extend oil production cuts until the end of the year pushed oil prices to 10-month highs last month.

The rally in the oil markets has lost some steam over the past couple of days as global markets respond to fears that US interest rates will remain high over the long term. Brent crude has fallen almost 7% over the past four sessions to hit its lowest level in three weeks.

Also moving the energy markets:

  • UAE to ramp-up oil production: Worried about underinvestment in the industry, the COP28 host plans to expand its oil production capacity to 5 mn barrels a day by 2027. (Bloomberg)
  • Russia fuel export ban in place until….? Moscow won’t commit to a timetable to ending its fuel export ban, and will leave it in place until domestic shortages are addressed and prices stabilize. (Reuters)

HAPPENING TODAY-

Senate elections: The upper house will hold committee elections today, with Senate speaker Abdel Wahab Abdel Razeq opening up the door for members wishing to run for leading posts of the chamber’s 14 committees. The results will also be announced later today.

** The House committee election results are in: We have the details on the results in this morning’s news well, below.

MARKET WATCH-

A steep sell-off: Asian markets are firmly in the red again this morning, led by Korea and Japan, mirroring steep declines yesterday in major equity indexes in Europe and the US.

The Dow is now negative YTD: The sell-off left the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 1.3% yesterday, wiping out its 2023 gains. The Nasdaq fell almost 2.0% yesterday while the S&P 500 ended the session 1.4% in the red. The sell-off on Wall Street followed an equally ugly day in Europe and Asia.

Blame turmoil in the bond markets: The rout in global stocks is being fuelled by an accelerating global bond sell-off, triggered by fears that global financial conditions are going to remain tight over the long-term.

Futures point to new waves of selling at the opening bell today in both Europe and North America.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD-

Dominating the foreign news today: McCarthy is out. Dissident Republicans toppled US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy yesterday, in retaliation for his brief alliance with the Democratic side of the House to pass legislation preventing a government shutdown on Saturday. McCarthy, who has held the position for nine months, becomes the first US House speaker to be removed. Rep Patrick McHenry has been named as interim speaker until a successor is chosen. (Associated Press | Reuters | Bloomberg | Financial Times | New York Times | Washington Post | Wall Street Journal)

*** It’s Hardhat day — your weekly briefing of all things infrastructure in Egypt: Enterprise’s industry vertical focuses each Wednesday on infrastructure, covering everything from energy, water, transportation, and urban development, as well as social infrastructure such as health and education.

In today’s issue: Mobile natural gas car filling stations are coming to Egypt.

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