Egypt’s largest steel producer by sales says it would sell 365 million shares at a price of £E5 a share, to raise its capital by £E1.82bn ($345m).

The company aims to increase steel production to 5.3 million tonnes by the end of 2009. As of 2007, Ezz was producing 4.8 million tonnes a year.

In 2007, the firm signed a $750m deal to develop a steel plant in Algeria, its first facility outside Egypt. The 1.5 million-tonne-a-year plant will be built at Jijel, east of Algiers (MEED 9:3:08).

Demand in Egypt grew by 15 per cent in 2007.

Demand for steel grew by 12 per cent in the Middle East and North Africa last year, to reach 38 million tonnes.