House to call for more natgas price cuts for industry: The House Industrial Committee will ask the government to cut natural gas prices by USD 1 to USD 4.5 / mmbtu for steel, aluminum, copper, ceramics, and porcelain factories, parliamentary sources say. The committee is planning to present this recommendation in a meeting with Trade and Industry Minister Amr Nassar in the coming days. The government set up in October a committee to revise every six months the prices at which it sells gas to the industrial sector following repeated calls by manufacturers. Prices were cut by 25% to USD 8 / mmBtu for cement producers, while metallurgy and ceramics manufacturers saw their rates drop to USD 5.5 from USD 7. A new pricing scheme that would lower the price of natural gas sold to petrochemical factories is also on the way.

Industry would like prices even lower: A source at an iron and steel factory said that the government should lower prices to between USD 3.5 and USD 4 /mmBtu, still lower than the committee’s recommendations. Meanwhile, Mohamed Abou El Enein, president of Ceramic Cleopatra, and Farouk Mostafa, chairman of Ceramica Venice, both called for lower prices for ceramics producers.