Eastern Tobacco raises specter of production shutdown, then backtracks: Eastern Tobacco Company reported a drop in days of production inputs on hand and raised the possibility of idling its factory lines if the FX situation continues, the company said in bullet points to explain its 2015-2016 results in regulatory filing with the Egyptian exchange (page 4, Arabic, pdf). The document notes that inventory of “primary manufacturing inputs that do not have a local alternative decreased to less than 6 months, which means that in the event that this situation continues for an extended period, the company will consider stopping producing and stop selling an important commodity to the consumer,” the company said. Eastern has said it is owed USD 32 mn by Philip Morris for July, August and September, as the company stopped accepting EGP for cigarettes it produced for the global brand. Al Masry Al Youm and Reuters picked up the report.

Company chairman Mohamed Osman later told Al Masry Al Youm the company hasn’t stopped manufacturing, adding that it has no issue with the availability of USD. What’s more, it has 12 months of tobacco on hand. He said the report included observations from the Central Auditing Organisation and that the company replied about them in the same report. There were indeed comments from the organization under “Auditor’s observations,” but that was on page 65 of the report.