Solb Misr loses $78.6 million in 2014 amid Egypt Energy Crisis

Egyptian steel group Solb Misr recorded EGP 600 million (US$78.6 million) worth of losses for 2014 driven by the ongoing crisis to supply fuel to its factories, chairman Gamal El-Garhy announced on Tuesday.

El-Garhy further told Amwal Al Ghad that his group was forced to decrease the production capacity in all factories by 50% due to the crisis, pointing out that the group had urged the Egyptian government to provide all oil and power needs for industrial sector as soon as possible.

In addition, the official also stated that Solb Misr’s expansion strategy had targeted pumping US$300 million investments to complete the launch of two new steel factories with capacity of 2 million tonnes per year. However, this strategy was postponed due to the current crisis.

He noted that the group decided to delay floating 20% of its shares in Egyptian bourse until the government goes through the crisis.

Moreover, Solb Misr’s chairman asked the government to solve the problem of supplying necessary fuel before next summer to the factories to start operating in order to avoid tremendous losses caused by the decrease in production capacity and machines losses.