São Paulo – Up to the end of last year, Egypt had a fleet of 228,000 vehicles. The forecast is for the total to reach 640,000 vehicles by 2012. "Our auto industry has grown much and we want Brazilian companies to learn about our market," stated the Egyptian minister of Trade and Industry, Rachid Mohamed Rachid, yesterday (11) at the offices of the Brazilian Association of Auto Parts Manufacturers (Sindipeças), in São Paulo.
According to the representative of the Council for Exploration of Engineering Products of Egypt, Ahmed Fekry, the country counts on 16 makers of vehicles, among them General Motors, Suzuki and Marcopolo. Egyptian production of automotive components is estimated at US$ 750 million. "More and more companies are investing in Egypt," said Fekry. In 2004, for example, Nissan invested US$ 100 million in the country to produce vehicles and Brazilian company Marcopolo, which established a joint venture with an Egyptian company, invested US$ 50 million. The forecast is to produce 1,500 buses in the Arab country.
"We are stretching our hands out to the Brazilians to work together and establish partnerships," said the minister to sector businessmen at the Sindipeças. "We are pleased that Brazilian companies are starting to travel to Egypt. I am sure that in future we will have more suppliers and Brazilian companies," added Rachid.
According to the Special Projects councillor at the Sindipeças, Flávio Del Soldato, Egypt has strong potential for Brazilian products. "We see great potential in forming partnerships with Egypt, as the country has a growing market," said Soldato. Another advantage is the closeness to the European market.
The Egyptians also said that the Arab country has trade agreements with the Arab and African countries, which may bring advantages for Brazil to export to Egypt. The Egyptian industrial park has two million square metres. Other advantages are the competitive production costs, the financial support of the government and cheap labour.
Business meeting
During the afternoon, a delegation of 15 Egyptian businessmen met around 50 Brazilian businessmen in the food, auto parts, cosmetics, pharmaceutical product, textile and agricultural commodity sectors. "I came to present my project with the idea of establishing some kind of partnership," stated the coordinator of the Shared Environmental Responsibility Project (Prac), Guilherme Arb de Oliveira, who collects used lead-acid batteries for recycling.
According to Oliveira, the Egyptians did not know this work on recycling of lead-acid batteries. "They do not yet have this concept of importing recyclable products," stated businesswoman Cristina Calil, who was accompanying Oliveira.
Another Brazilian company that participated in the meeting was Three Links Trading, which represents several companies. "I came to offer soft drinks," said trader Roberto Garcia Jr. According to him, the Egyptian businessman from Mansour Trade & Distribution showed interest in the product and said he will make contact later.
In the pharmaceutical sector, two large Egyptian makers of medications came to Brazil to try to start exporting their products. They were Delta Pharma and Pharco Corporation, the latter, the sales leader in Egypt. Each year the company sells around US$ 200 million in medication, like antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and vitamins, etc.
In the cosmetics sector was the president of Mamiba, Maged G. Amin, who is seeking partners to sell kits of shampoos, conditioner, bath salts, creams and body oils to hotels and spas. The company already supplies to large hotel groups like Merriott and Hyatt.
*Translated by Mark Ament
