File: A shipment of containers at Damietta port on the Mediterranean, one of the country's largest gateways.
Mamdouh El-Sheiti, the media spokesman for Egypt's Damietta port on the Mediterranean, said in press statements on Monday that the port cannot be held responsible for the Sunday theft of a shipment of 15,000 batteries imported for use on the country's first locally manufactured Smartphone 'Sico.'
El-Sheiti said that all customs procedures were followed from when the shipment arrived at the port until it departed on a truck loaded with 27 boxes of batteries stored in three containers on its way to the company's factory in Upper Egypt's Assuit.
The prosecutor-general's office has questioned the truck driver and summoned for questioning a number of customs officials and the company representatives who received the shipment.
Egypt's Sico Technology company delayed on Sunday the commercial launch of the country's first locally manufactured Smartphone from late December to mid-January after the shipment was stolen.
Sico CEO Mohamed Salem had said in media statements that the imported batteries for the Android Smartphones disappeared after leaving Damietta port for Assiut, without providing further details.
The company has been planning to offer several types of regular and smart phones as well as the Sico tab on the market.
Sico manufactures 58 percent of its products' components locally.
Salem said that the thousands of pre-orders that have been made for the phone will now be delivered by mid-January.
The Sico Smartphone was first unveiled at the inauguration of the 20th annual Information and Communication Technology Conference earlier this month.
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