Over an area of 400,000 sq. m. and with investments worth EUR1 billion, a Rolling Plus tyre factory will be established in the Sokhna Industrial Zone inside the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZONE).
A contract was signed on for the project on 20 September by Abdel-Nasser Rifai, Chairman of the Main Development Company for SCZONE, and John Barakat, CEO of Rolling Plus Chemical Industries. Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and Waleid Gamal El-Dein, CEO of SCZONE witnessed the signing ceremony.
The project aims to establish a factory to produce tyres for passenger cars, and for light and heavy transport. Once the three phases of the project are fully operational, the factory will have the capacity to produce 7 million tyres annually.
The first phase of the project will involve the construction work for the factory, along with production lines for automobile tyres, with a capacity of 2.5 million tyres annually. The investment cost for that phase will be EUR400 million to EUR450 million; 50 per cent of the production of this phase will target the needs of the local market.
In the second phase, production lines for light transport tyres will be introduced with a capacity of 3.5 million tyres annually. Local market should benefit of 40 per cent of the production. In the third phase, production capacity should reach 7 million after introducing the heavy transport tyre production.
According to Mr Gamal El-Dein, CEO of SCZONE, the tyres factory project is part of SCZONE general strategy to locally promote the automobile industry and industries related to it. The project also aims to cater for the local market needs, which could reduce Egypt’s import bills. The Finnish Black Donuts is also partnering in the project through providing technical consultancy regarding the project’s designs throughout all the phases of the project. Mr Gamal El-Dein pointed out that the Rolling Plus tyre factory will provide 1000 direct and indirect job opportunities with SCZONE.
