All aluminum products will face additional import duties for a three-year period, Trade and Industry Minister Nevine Gamea said in a statement yesterday. A 16.5% tariff of the CIF (cost, ins. and freight) value of imported aluminum moulds, cylinders and wire with a minimum value of USD 333 per tonne will be applied for the first year. The duty will be reduced by 3% for each of the following two years, reaching a minimum value of USD 211 per tonne by the third year, Gamea said.

Other things we’re keeping an eye on this morning:

• Amazon Payment Services is waiving service fees for businesses in Egypt who ink an agreement before the end of June. The announcement does not make clear when the waiver would come to an end.
• Vodafone is in talks to operate the new administrative capital’s planned 5G network, and has submitted proposals to the National Telecom Regulatory Authority.
• Wizz Air Abu Dhabi will begin operating four flights a week from the UAE to Luxor and Sohag next month. Flights from the UAE to Sohag will run Wednesdays and Saturdays starting 29 May and flights to Luxor will begin operating every Monday and Friday on 4 June, and Tuesdays and Saturdays from 15 June.
• Real estate developer Inertia will borrow EGP 1.1 bn in Islamic financing from Banque Misr to finance construction works for the fourth phase of its flagship Jefaira North Coast project.
• Banque Misr will provide electronic collection services to the Petroleum Commercial Services Company (Petrotrade), which processes more than 70% of the country’s gas bill payments, Al Mal reports, citing a statement from the bank.
• The Dostour Party’s former spokesperson Khaled Dawoud has been released from pre-trial detention — where he has been held since 2019 on charges of reporting fake news — pending further investigation.
• The Court of Cassation has upheld death sentences for four defendants and the imprisonment of 14 others who were found guilty of killing eight members of the police service in Helwan in 2016.