Egypt to stop importing railcars by October 2020? The government will no longer need to import railcars from abroad after completing the development of the Arab Organization for Industrialization’s (AOI) Semaf railway factory in October 2020, Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly said during a visit to the factory, according to a cabinet statement.

What does this mean for Egypt’s current contracts? Madbouly said that the government will stop importing railcars and begin buying the factory’s entire production but did not clarify what this means for the contracts Egypt has already signed with foreign companies. Egypt is still scheduled to receive 90 locomotives from GE under its USD 575 mn contract, having only received the first batch of 10 in December. The Egyptian National Railways Authority was also poised to issue a tender for 100 locomotives towards the end of last year, in which Siemens and Bombardier showed interest. And only two months ago the government signed a new USD 466.3 mn contract with US firm PRL to purchase 50 new locomotives.