Egypt’s Deputy Prime Minister for Industrial Development and Minister of Industry and Transport Kamel Al-Wazir has agreed with Saudi partners to develop and repurpose 300 feddans of the Helwan Iron and Steel plant, a Cabinet source familiar with the Arab investments portfolio told Al Manassa.
The land, which sits on a roughly 3,000-feddan site will be part of a Saudi partnership to establish a multi-industry complex with investments of around $1.5 billion, the source told Al Manassa.
In 2021, the general assembly of the Iron and Steel Company decided to liquidate the firm under then-Public Business Sector Minister Hisham Tawfik, who justified the move by citing the company’s mounting debts, outdated equipment, and lack of viable development opportunities. The decision sparked widespread criticism, as the company was considered an icon of the drive to expand heavy industry since the 1950s.
The source, who requested anonymity, said converting part of the plant’s land into a complex for textiles, ready-made garments, pharmaceuticals, food industries, and petrochemicals aims to repurpose the strategic location and vast area of the shuttered plant. The goal is to establish an industrial complex that meets local market needs and attracts new foreign investment, he added.
He pointed to the availability of necessary infrastructure at the plant site, including electricity, gas, and water networks, and transport links connected to the railway system.
This gives it a strong competitive edge, qualifying it to become a textile industrial city modeled on global specialized clusters. This would help achieve integration between local industrial chains and deepen the feeder industries for ready-made garments, remarked the Cabinet source.
In late 2021, the company’s general assembly approved changing the land use of some of its properties from industrial to residential to increase sale revenue and use the liquidity to pay off debts, he added.
This was followed by the company completing procedures in October 2023 to convert a 120-feddan portion of its land portfolio from industrial use to residential, tourism, and service activities.
This approach was reaffirmed in December 2023, when the Ministry of the Public Business Sector announced a master plan to utilize the Iron and Steel Company’s land to establish an integrated urban project on an area of nearly 2,000 feddans.
