The tremendous growth of the population in Egypt, increasing by two per cent annually, and reaching 84.5 million inhabitants, is appealing to the high demand for the real estate market and infrastructure projects, including housing settlements, shopping malls, educational institutions and so on. These are made by the glass and aluminium industries, very important sectors used in construction, furnishing and office buildings, among others.
The Egyptian government is therefore investing in the building, construction and real estate sectors to examine how best to maximize returns in these markets.
Five million houses and property units will be built in the 2012-2017 period, in addition to 250,000 housing units delivered by the end of 2012, thus providing a larger scale and uplift to related industries such as the glass and aluminium industry in these projects.
More domestic and foreign companies and investors linked to the glass and aluminium sectors will invest in the Egyptian market to meet the rising demand of the market.
It is reported by all experts that glass and aluminium consumption is rising rapidly in the MENA Region; there will be huge demand for the glass industry not only in the Egypt, but also in the MENA Region over the next coming years.
The 2013 edition of Glass World is tailored to cope with the African and MENA Region’s fast growing role in the global glass and aluminium industries. Both industries’ demand and consumption is rising rapidly in these regions rea...

The tremendous growth of the population in Egypt, increasing by two per cent annually, and reaching 84.5 million inhabitants, is appealing to the high demand for the real estate market and infrastructure projects, including housing settlements, shopping malls, educational institutions and so on. These are made by the glass and aluminium industries, very important sectors used in construction, furnishing and office buildings, among others.
The Egyptian government is therefore investing in the building, construction and real estate sectors to examine how best to maximize returns in these markets.
Five million houses and property units will be built in the 2012-2017 period, in addition to 250,000 housing units delivered by the end of 2012, thus providing a larger scale and uplift to related industries such as the glass and aluminium industry in these projects.
More domestic and foreign companies and investors linked to the glass and aluminium sectors will invest in the Egyptian market to meet the rising demand of the market.
It is reported by all experts that glass and aluminium consumption is rising rapidly in the MENA Region; there will be huge demand for the glass industry not only in the Egypt, but also in the MENA Region over the next coming years.
The 2013 edition of Glass World is tailored to cope with the African and MENA Region’s fast growing role in the global glass and aluminium industries. Both industries’ demand and consumption is rising rapidly in these regions reaching its peak.

Market facts
The MENA Region represents a huge market in the glass industry. The high demand for flat glass, float glass and glass processing machinery, aside from products, containers and glassware in the MENA Region and Africa, has registered a two-fold increase since 2004.
It is believed that the ongoing economic growth in most MENA Region and African countries has resulted in attracting multinational companies who have set up plans and targets to operate and invest in these booming markets.
Therefore, the strength of glass market growth throughout the MENA Region and African markets was clearly shown by the announcement of huge glass investments being built or under construction with a view to increasing the capacities to cover the regional demand and supply gap, as well as for export and re-export. It has been reported recently that experts believe that the future of glass production, consumption and imports in the world will remain in the MENA Region.
Most MENA Region and African countries have to depend on overseas imports to fulfil demands within their own countries. The trend is to import low-priced goods from nearby countries and distribute them locally and regionally with a high profit margin.
Egypt mainly depends on China and Turkey in its importing of glass, aside from encouraging Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in this segment.

Egypt’s glass market in general
Egypt has a key role as a major producer of glass in the MENA Region and Africa. Egypt is succeeding in becoming a regional export and investment hub by increasing its investments in infrastructure projects and industrial construction, which call for glass usage at a high level.
Egypt now comprises several new and renewed factories in many industrial zones compared to five years ago, which is a very strong indicator that investment and technology is needed for the upgrading of existing factories.

• SORG has renewed, enlarged and expanded the factory of both MGM and Arab Pharmaceutical Glass;
• Saudi Canadian glass for containers and tableware established another factory in a new vital industrial zone in March 2011;
• Jeffer Engineering and Technology Co., Ltd. built at least three factories in Egypt under the name of El Wadi and El Swedi which were established in 2010;
• Obal Factory for tableware was built in 2011;
• Three Automotive glass factories have been built since 2008;
• Yassin factory had been renewed;
• The Arab Union is establishing a new factory.

Thanks to numerous trade agreements between Egypt and other countries, trade concessions and Customs duty exemptions have been granted to ensure that trade flows smoothly in the region.

Egypt’s free trade agreements
Egypt’s free trade agreements include:

• Agadir – agreement for free trade between Egypt and (Morocco – Tunisia – Jordan);
• COMESA – agreement between Egypt & African countries;
• Free and Preferential Trade agreements between Egypt and Arab Countries;
• Egypt – EU Partnership Agreement.

Moreover, Egypt has been a member of the WTO since 1995.
There is ample space for glass producers, equipment and technology suppliers and more so for trade players, to draw up an effective strategy to chart aggressive growth.

Why Egypt
Egypt is a transcontinental country that stands as a focal point located in the junction of Africa, Europe and Asia, thus it has strong economic radiation power to the MENA Region and surrounding African countries, as well as having considerable market capacity and potential.
Egypt has the major factors and pillars which gives it a vital strategic spot with an extensive influence in the Region and makes it one of the pioneers in the glass industry in the MENA Region and Africa due to the following facts:

• •Population size and strategic geographical location of Egypt in the MENA Region and Africa;
• Availability of experienced labour force and expertise in the glass industry with a sufficient percentage;
• Egypt comprises numerous mines producing high purity silica sand used for many industries, especially glass production, ceramic industry foundries and chemical industries, for the domestic and international market;
• The labour force and the presence of the numerous mines and raw materials had made the glass industry a very rich and competitive industry in the region with the lowest cost rate;
• Egypt produces around 400,000 to 600,000 tons of flat glass and production capacity is expected to reach up to Million tons/year, with investing in the glass industry expected to be maximized from EGP 11 billion at present, to reach EGP 35 billion over the very near future.

Egypt has main three float glass companies: Saint-Gobain, Sphinx and Guardian.
Since 2000, the pace of structural reforms, including fiscal, monetary policies, privatization and new business legislations, have helped Egypt move towards a more market-oriented economy and prompted increased foreign investm
ent. The reforms and policies have strengthened macroeconomic annual growth results, which averaged 7.8 per cent annually.
Egypt has a stable economy enjoying continuous growth, averaging 4-5 per cent in the past quarter. The economy embarked on various stages of development during which the public and private sectors played roles varying in relative importance.