Poland’s Feerum allegedly pulls out of grain silo factory project

Good afternoon everyone, and a warm welcome to the start of the workweek.

THE BIG STORY TODAY-

It looks like Port Said’s EGP 1.6 bn grain silo factory project has lost its foreign partner: The Egyptian arm of Polish grain silo company Feerum will pull out of its agreement to set up a factory to manufacture grain silos with with Egyptian construction and engineering firm Samcrete and the state-owned Egyptian Holding Company for Silos and Storage, an anonymous Feerum Egypt official told Al Mal.

The why: The company official reportedly pointed to the refraction of its first order for a silo in the domestic market by the Supply Ministry — which hampered the project’s negotiations with local banks to finance the project — among other undisclosed reasons.

Remember: For years, the state has been working to boost its wheat storage capacity, building more silos and taking out loans to invest in silo development, all with the aim of ensuring none of our local harvest goes to waste due to lack of sufficient silo capacity and increasing wheat reserves. The Supply Ministry has a plan to increase the country’s silo capacity to 5.3 mn tons from its current 2.1 mn tons and cut down on the percentage of wheat that is wasted in the harvest and storage process.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD-

The killing of Yahya Al Sinwar hasn’t deterred Israel’s attack on Gaza, with strikes against Lebanon intensifying. Southern Beirut was one target of the Israeli military’s strikes on Saturday, as was a residential building in the Palestinian town of Beit Lahiya, where at least 87 people were killed. Despite hopes in some diplomatic circles that the killing of Sinwar could open up the possibility of Israel's openness to a ceasefire agreement, Netanyahu has reiterated to Israeli media that the war on Gaza and Lebanon will continue. (Reuters | CNN)

In the realm of business, nuclear energy stocks have seen a major upswing in the wake of AI demand. Last week saw AI frontrunners like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft follow OpenAI’s steps in looking to nuclear energy to power their AI data centers. After landmark deals penned by Amazon and Google, shares in nuclear energy companies in the US have risen by 37-99%. (Financial Times)

** CATCH UP QUICK on the top stories from today’s EnterpriseAM:

• Steady as she goes: The Central Bank of Egypt left record high interest rates unchanged on Thursday, in line with analyst expectations.
• The fuel bill keeps going up: The fuel pricing committee decided to hike fuel prices by 8-17% as of last Friday, marking the third fuel hike of the year.
• Stay positive: S&P Global Ratings decided to keep the country’s long- and short-term sovereign credit rating outlook as positive and affirmed its B-/B rating.

*** It’s Inside Industry day — your weekly briefing of all things industrial in Egypt. Inside Industry focuses each Sunday on what it takes to turn Egypt into a manufacturing and export powerhouse, ranging from initial investment and planning to product distribution, through to land allocation to industrial processes, supply chain management, labor, automation and technology, inputs and exports, regulation and policy.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- As has been the case for the past week, the mercury is expected to reach a high of 31°C and a low of 21°C in the capital, according to our favorite weather app.