Beirut (APD) -Helal El Sewedy Holding, an Egyptian conglomerate, plans to establish a $100 million plant for the production of cables in Bahrain, the Riyadh-based al Iqtisadiya daily reported Thursday.
"The company is currently expanding across Arab markets and we have started implementing an expansion plan with investments topping SR 1.5 billion in the Arab countries," said Hesham Helal El Sewedy, CEO of the company.
El Sewedy stated that his company is currently establishing distribution warehouses for plastics, copper and cables production in Egypt, Algeria, Sudan, Nigeria, Ghana and Ethiopia. In Egypt, the company is also constructing a $15 million plant for the production of plastic granules.
"We are currently expanding our production capacity of copper in several Arab countries to 20,000 tons of copper per year at a cost of $40 million. Moreover, we are upgrading our copper production plant in Egypt at a cost of $60 million with a production capacity of 120,000 tons per year. As to cables production, our production capacity will reach 50,000 tons at a cost of $70 million," Sewedy noted.
He added that the group plans to construct a plant for the production of copper that will employ around 3,000 people but he did not discuss the size of the intended investment or the location of the plant.
Helal El Sewedy Holding is a manufacturer of electricity cables and wires, PVC compound and copper rods. It holds majority stakes in Cairo-based El Sewedy Cables and several other manufacturing companies in Egypt, Sudan, Ghana and Syria. In Saudi Arabia, the El Sewedy family directly owns Hesham El Sewedy Enterprises, which is majority shareholder in Jeddah Cable Company and Saudi American Company For Lighting Fixtures, both based in Jeddah. [TS]
By Nadim Issa, APD Staff Writer in Beirut
© APD (Arab Press Digest) 2006
