Good afternoon, friends, and welcome to a new workweek. Kicking off the week is news about the latest updates on Egypt’s mega desalination projects, US continued strikes on Yemen, and Mercedes’s latest attempt to regain its market share in China and Europe.

THE BIG STORY TODAY

Gov’t to launch tenders for desalination program soon: The Finance Ministry is expected to kick off the first phase of its planned desalination tenders — which involve four desalination plants with a capacity of 3 mn cbm/day — in 2Q 2025, a senior government source told EnterpriseAM. The ministry is reportedly awaiting the approval of the Sovereign Fund of Egypt to begin tendering the first phase, which could be expanded to 10 plants.

Where things stand: Land has already been allocated for the projects, and several prequalified companies are ready to submit their proposals, our source said.

We knew this was coming: The government over a year ago set forth a plan to offer four desalination plants to the private sector in 1H 2024 as part of a broader plan to tender a total of 21 plants. The tender for the first batch was delayed pending the completion of land allocation and financial revisions due to exchange rate fluctuations.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD

It’s all eyes on Trump’s strikes on Yemen’s Houthis in the foreign press this morning: At least 31 people were killed and 101 others injured in the large-scale military strikes launched by the US on Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen on Saturday, Yemeni health ministry spokesman Anees Al Asbahi said in a statement on X, citing the latest statistics from the Houthi-run ministry. The strikes — which came in response to the Iran-backed militant group’s repetitive attacks on vessels in the Red Sea — might continue for weeks, a US official told Reuters.

AND- The AI race is heating up: Chinese tech company Baidu has launched two AI models, ERNIE 4.5 and ERNIE X1, as it seeks to gain ground in the AI race, according to a company statement. The X1, a deep-thinking reasoning model, reportedly delivers performance comparable to DeepSeek R1 at half the price with “enhanced capabilities in understanding, planning, reflection, and evolution.” Meanwhile, ERNIE 4.5, Baidu’s latest native multimodal foundation model, offers enhanced language skills, multimodal comprehension, and improved reasoning abilities, reportedly outperforming GPT-4.5 at just 1% of its price. The story got ink in Reuters.

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

  • The US Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) has launched an investigation into the Suez Canal and other global maritime chokepoints to assess whether foreign governments or shipping operators are creating conditions unfavorable to US shipping and trade.
  • Scatec inked a 25-year power purchase agreement with EgyptAlum for its 1.1 GW solar plant and 200 MWh battery energy storage system in Naga Hammadi.
  • EGX-listed Elsewedy Electric’s net income rose 72.6% y-o-y to EGP 17.5 bn in 2024, meanwhile, revenues expanded 52.4% y-o-y during the year to EGP 232 bn.

enterprise

*** 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- Temperatures are only getting warmer in the capital this week, with the mercury set to reach a high of 36°C tomorrow, before settling on a chilly low of 17°C at night, according to our favorite weather app.

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