The EGP broke the EGP 17.00 ceiling on Thursday: Like villains from the silent movie era, FX traders have strapped the EGP on the tracks in front of a speeding train, with Al Borsa reporting greenbacks changing hands at EGP 17.50 per USD 1. Al Mal reported a slightly lower rate of EGP 17-17.10 to the USD, while traders speaking to Reuters on Thursday put the rate at 16.80-17.10. That an inconceivable EGP 1 drop from Wednesday’s price. Demand for a speedy devaluation is growing: Samih Sawiris, chairman and CEO of Orascom Development Holdings, told Al Shorouk that investments have ceased as a result of the two rates.

A number of mid-sized companies are reporting that they have shut down production at their factories because FX losses now dwarf the un-recovered overheads they’ll incur by having staff down tools, Al Borsa reports. These include Gazan Metals and fridge manufacturer Al Ashary, both of whom are finding sourcing FX through the parallel market untenable. Prices are also increasingly inelastic, says the head of El Marakby Steel.

Chamber calls for two-week ban on parallel market: The situation has driven the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce to call for a two-week moratorium on buying FX from the parallel market. The federation has also called on importers of non-essential goods to stop or delay imports for three months. (The federation was unable to mobilize support for an earlier initiative to stop sourcing FX from the parallel market for 21 days.)

Container companies, including DP World, appear to appreciate the situation and have decided to charge customers in EGP at the official CBE rate for cargo shipped to Egypt, Al Mal reports. Outbound cargo will be paid for in USD at the port of destination. Shipping fees are expected to double as a result of the rate, especially as major shipping lines have been charging in USD since July.

The FX crunch has FMCG players studying price increases, with Al Mal zeroing in on Edita, the nation’s largest maker of packaged snack foods. (Separately, Edita’s Beni Suef factory re-opened as expected on Thursday, the company said in an EGX statement (pdf), after a brief closure due to the Supply Ministry seizing of 2k tonnes of sugar. These sugar raids, called “necessary” by Prime Minister Sherif Ismail last week, continue with the Supply Ministry recently boasting that it confiscated 400 tonnes of sugar and rice from alleged hoarders. The ministry is “ready to supply any needed amount of sugar to retailers as needed through [the state’s] Food Industries Holding Company,” according to a statement on Friday evening picked up by Al Shorouk.)