COMMODITIES-

A second World-Bank backed wheat buy: State grain buyer GASC has launched an international tender for 30-60k tons of wheat for delivery in late February or March, according to its website. Traders need to submit their bids directly to GASC by midday tomorrow. This is GASC’s second grain tender this month, breaking a hiatus after high prices and a lack of offers on the back of the war in Ukraine largely forced the authority to switch to direct purchases last year. It’s also the second tender to be financed by the USD 500 mn food security loan the World Bank agreed to extend the country last summer.

CONSTRUCTION-

More makeovers in central Cairo? Parts of the Nile Corniche, the area surrounding Ramses Square, and the area between Giza’s new Bashteel train station, the July 26 axis, and west Cairo’s monorail have been signed off for “replanning” by the Supreme Council for Planning and Urban Development, according to a cabinet statement. The decision comes to bring “optimal utilization for state-owned land in the areas,” the statement said. The Supreme Council is headed by Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly and includes a number of cabinet ministers and planning authority heads.

Movement on Mogamma + ex-interior ministry redevelopment: The state planning body also gave its official sign-off on the Sovereign Fund of Egypt’s (SFE) request to turn the government’s Mogamma complex in Downtown’s Tahrir Square into a hotel, and to convert the former building of the nearby interior ministry into a mixed-use service complex.

REFRESHER- The approval comes more than a year after a consortium of US-based Global Ventures, Oxford Capital, and the UAE’s Al Otaiba Investment were awarded the EGP 3.5 bn contract to revamp the Mogamma’ into a hotel. The consortium plans to finalize construction by 2024.

MANUFACTURING-

Baking raw materials supplier Bakeland Egypt plans to invest EGP 700 mn to build a new factory which it plans to open in the next three years, according to Al Borsa.

TRANSPORT –

Transmashholding to build railway car maintenance workshop here: Russian locomotive manufacturer Transmashholding will build a rail carriage maintenance workshop in Cairo’s Abu Zabal industrial district, under a contract it signed with the National Railways Authority, the Transport Ministry said yesterday. The workshop is a first step for the company’s plans to build a factory that would localize the manufacture of spare parts, the statement read.

REFRESHER- Transmashholding is providing technical support and spare parts for the 1.3k rail cars it is delivering to Egypt under a separate 12-year contract, which will see the company train Egyptian engineers on maintenance and locally manufacture spare parts. The company is supplying 1.3k railcars to Egypt under a EGP 22 bn contract signed in 2018. The ministry said 725 have been delivered so far.