Every production line comes with an energy equation

Most of Egypt’s energy debate happens outside the factory gates, centering on generation capacity and transmission lines. Inside a plant, the questions are more immediate: how much power will a new line need, what energy can the process recover, and how exposed are its inputs to gas prices? At Sprea Misr, we work through those questions while the line is still on the drawing board.

Our sulfuric acid project shows how that works. Turning sulfur into sulfuric acid gives off a lot of heat, which we use to produce large quantities of steam. We designed the production line to use electricity generated by a 5 MW turbine powered by that steam, so part of the site’s electricity needs are met internally, reducing what we draw from the grid.

Our exposure to natural gas comes through our feedstock. Formaldehyde, the key raw material used in the manufacture of most of our 18 products, is made from methanol, which is itself produced from natural gas. When gas supplies tighten, our input costs are affected. That is why we weigh energy and feedstock costs alongside capacity, yields, and pricing whenever we assess a new production line or expansion.

What happens inside our gates doesn’t stay there. Our products feed into everything from fertilizers and construction chemicals to furniture, laminated sheets, and building materials across more than 50 export markets. Making our operations more efficient and resilient supports that broader industrial ecosystem.

Good engineering still has to meet the market. When access to some Gulf routes tightened, our commercial team prioritized the orders that protected margins and worked to broaden our export market mix, including by expanding our focus on Africa. In the second quarter of 2026, revenue rose 19.4% year-on-year to USD 49.6 mn, while our EBITDA margin reached 34.8%, up 13 percentage points. Together, operational discipline and commercial flexibility let us defend margins as conditions change.

Multiply those plant-level decisions across Egypt’s industrial base, and they add up. As demand grows, the country still needs new generation capacity and stronger networks. But an energy-intensive plant that recovers heat from its own processes or plans its electricity loads at the design stage can reduce its reliance on the grid. Those choices are far easier to build in than to bolt on later.

Valmore calls its approach to ownership “Investing Beyond Capital.” For us at Sprea Misr, that means backing long-term investment in process efficiency and building the commercial agility to diversify our markets.

The best time to decide where a factory’s power will come from is before the factory exists.

Hesham Fahmy, chairman and managing director, Sprea Misr