The project received the green light during a session of the Ministerial Group for Industrial Development held on Tuesday, according to a statement by the Ministry of Industry and Transport.
The facility will produce tyres for heavy transport vehicles, engineering equipment, and agricultural tractors, with plans to expand into passenger car tyres to serve domestic demand and boost exports. The specific location of the free zone has not been announced yet.
The investment is the latest in a series of tyre manufacturing ventures in Egypt's industrial zones, part of national efforts to localize the automotive industry and expand private sector manufacturing.
In September, China's Sailun Group began construction on a $1 billion facility in the TEDA Egypt industrial development area. The project is being built over three years in three phases on a 350,000-square-metre site.
In November, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly opened the Al-Mansour Vehicle and Industrial Filters Manufacturing Plant in 10th of Ramadan City. The EGP 500 million ($11 million) facility is also aimed at localizing the automotive industry.
The ministerial group also agreed to form a committee to review a request by TCI Sanmar, a unit of India’s Sanmar Group, to raise customs duties on imported raw vinyl chloride polymers (PVC) to protect the local industry.
The committee, which includes representatives from the finance and investment ministries, will assess the firm’s production capacity to ensure it can meet domestic demand before any tax changes are implemented.
In a move to bolster industrial planning, the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research joined the group for the first time.
The ministry will use its affiliated universities and consulting offices to map and analyze industrial zones across Egypt's governorates, according to the statement.
The Federation of Egyptian Industries (FEI) will use the resulting data to implement infrastructure projects and establish new investor associations.
Minister El-Wazir confirmed that forming an investors’ association for each industrial zone in Egypt is a priority to manage zones and their efficiency, while facilitating procedures for investors.
The push is part of a broader government strategy to increase the private sector’s contribution to the economy and boost manufacturing to 20 percent of GDP.
Cairo is targeting seven percent real GDP growth by lowering its import bill and localizing production, key targets under its $8 billion loan programme with the International Monetary Fund.
Egypt’s private investment rose to 47.5 percent of total executed investments in the 2024/2025 fiscal year, up from 39.6 percent the previous year.
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