China’s Wu’an Xin Feng has kicked off construction on its planned USD 1.7 bn integrated industrial complex in Ain Sokhna’s Industrial Zone, the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) said in a statement. The two-phase complex being built by the company’s Egyptian arm Xin Feng Egypt Steel will be completed over a five-year period and create 8k direct jobs.

The project’s first phrase will be operational early as 2027, and will include four factories for automotive brake components, household appliance parts, standard fasteners, and hot-rolled steel coils.

The second phase will be live starting 2030, with five more factories — a machinery components plant with a production capacity of 200k tons a year, a brake discs project that can produce 150k tons a year, a factory producing steel structures with a capacity of 100k tons a year, one for aluminum and magnesium alloy auto parts with a capacity of 20k tons a year, and one for cold-rolled steel coils with a capacity of 2 mn tons a year. The second phase will also see the construction of the two service centers — one for R&D and the other for solid waste recycling.

REMEMBER- The Chinese steelmaker first floated the idea for the complex late last year, before inking a final contract for the project last month. Prior to that it inked an agreement with the SCZone to lease a plot of land to set up a USD 297 mn hot-rolled steel coils plant. It remains unclear if the project is the hot-rolled steel coil factory that will be set up in the industrial complex or a separate project entirely.

Starting construction on the project is an important step forward in the country’s localization efforts, said SCZone head Walid Gamal El Din. The head of the zone highlighted the automotive parts and household appliance factories’ role in localizing these sectors and helping improve the country’s export potential.

DATA POINT- The SCZone currently has around 140 factories under construction across its industrial zones.

ALSO IN MANUFACTURING NEWS-

Treegas has begun construction on a new EUR 14 mn facility to manufacture and fill gas cylinders in partnership with Czech company HPC, according to an SCZone statement. The 10.4k sqm project in the Sokhna Industrial Zone will be developed in two phases, starting with a plant producing 500k cylinders annually and creating 250 direct jobs. The second phase will add production lines for gas regulators and valves.

We first heard about the project in November when the two signed an MoU for the project, then valued at EUR 10 mn.

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