Egypt’s Industrial Development Authority (IDA) has not received any requests to obtain 11 cement plant licences, which were re-offered by the authority a year ago despite eight local and foreign companies purchased the statements of work before the end of December 2017, according to sources quoted in Arab Finance.

The IDA offered 14 licences in 2016 to build new cement plants or expand operating facilities in nine governments across the country. While SVC, Elsewedy Cement and Egyptian Cement obtained three licences, the remainder was re-offered last year to companies in Minya, Sohag, Qena, Aswan, New Valley, Matrouh, Suez and South Sinai.

The reluctance of cement producers to apply for the licences has been atttributed to a current oversupply of around 30Mta of cement in the market.