Despite decrease in chemical industries exports during the last 2 years, they still achieved a growth rate of 11 percent annually between 2015 and 2020
The chemical industries sector is expected to see a growth rate of 10 percent compared to 2020, with exports totaling about $5.8 billion over 2021, states Khaled Abu Al-Makarem, Chairperson of the Chemical and Fertilizers Export Council.
Despite the decrease in chemical industries exports during the last two years, they still achieved a growth rate of 11 percent annually in the five-year period between 2015 and 2020, he added.
Abu Al-Makarem also noted that Egypt has adopted several procedures to stabilize production and exports, namely commencing with the disbursal of late dues to exporters from the Export Subsidy Program. This has taken place in cooperation with the Ministry of Finance and Export Development Fund.
The sector’s exports amounted to $5.238 billion in 2020, a decrease of 8 percent compared to 2019, according to the annual report of General Organization for Export and Import Control (GOEIC).
Abu Al-Makarem highlighted that the performance of non-oil exports distributed among various sectors experienced a decline to roughly $6.6 billion in 2020, compared to about $27 billion in 2019. This reflected a decrease of 2 percent between the two years.
The data indicates a decline in performance of exports across most chemical industries commodities, except for fertilizer exports, which rose by 5 percent compared to 2019.
The fertilizers segment saw its exports reach a value of $1.426 billion, with exports of paints rising by 3 percent to reach $200 million, and organic chemicals seeing an increase of 5 percent to record $183 million.
Abu Al-Makarem pointed out the most important reasons for the decline in chemical industry exports in 2020, apart from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, including the decline in global trade movement.
