Egypt, South Korea sign EUR 243 mn contract to manufacture and supply metro cars: Investment and International Cooperation Minister Sahar Nasr signed yesterday a EUR 243 mn with South Korea’s Ambassador to Egypt Yoon Yeocheol to manufacture and supply 32 metro cars, according to an Investment Ministry statement (pdf). The release doesn’t name the winning party, but our read is that this is a local assembly project in which the winning South Korean bidder will be sourcing 30% of the cars’ components in Egypt. Funding for the contract will come from the Korea Economic Development Cooperation Fund. The cars will be used for the third and fourth phases of Cairo Metro Line 3, with the first four scheduled for delivery in time for the inauguration of Phase 4B of the line at the end of 2019, according to Transport Minister Hisham Arafat. The remaining cars will be delivered at a rate of one per month. The order makes up the second half of the 64 cars the government had planned to lock down for the new line. Egypt had signed a EUR 350 mn contract with Korea’s Hyundai Rotem for the other 32 cars last year.

Financing for locomotives, too: The news came as President Abdel Fattah El Sisi signed off yesterday on a EUR 100 mn loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to fund the purchase of 13 locomotives for the Cairo Metro Line 2, according to Al Shorouk. The agreement was inked on 8 December 2015.