The Middle East Sector Meets at Lift City Expo Cairo

Lift City Expo, which is the first exhibition to take place in Egypt after a hiatus of approximately four years, was held at the International Cairo International Convention Center (CICC) on July 21-23, 2022.

At the event organized by ACT, approximately 30 companies exhibited their products in one Hall. In addition to Egyptian manufacturers and franchises, many companies from Türkiye, China and Italy took part in the exhibition, where Elevator World Middle East was the official press sponsor. Despite the event being held in one hall instead of two due to the cancellations of the local companies, the exhibition attracted a great number of exhibitors and visitors. AKIŞ Makina, Balaban, Butkon, Ceyas, Erkan and Türkray from Türkiye, the country with the highest number of exhibitors in general, opened booths at the exhibition. In addition to Egyptian sector representatives, there were also visitors from the Middle East and Gulf countries. Some Chinese companies, which have not participated in any event for a long time due to COVID-19 restrictions in China, opened booths at Lift Expo, which is an indicator for the next exhibitions.

EU standards are not mandatory in the country

Despite the ongoing infrastructure preparations made for many years, European Union standards like EN 81-20/50 are not mandatory in Egypt. As a result, old generation double-speed elevators and swinging doors are the best-selling products in the country.  The sale of uncertified products, which are not subject to the standard, is one of the biggest obstacles in terms of unfair competition. Companies, especially European and Turkish manufacturers, that manufacture products in accordance with EU standards cannot compete with domestic manufacturers in terms of price. However, due to the ongoing construction of New Administrative Capital projects and thousands of residential projects within the region, high-tech units that comply with the EU standards will be needed.

Imported goods are not easy to access

While the construction of the ongoing new capital city project in the country creates high volume opportunities for many companies, decreasing imports in line with the new measures taken by the Egyptian government was one of the hot topics of the exhibition. In order to suppress the currency, the government has taken a series of measures for reducing the import of products that can already be produced in the country. Although it seems advantageous for the domestic manufacturers, it does not change the preferred product range. Companies that want to use components that comply with EU standards in their units and import them have to face many problems in international money transfer and customs clearance.

Agenda

Despite the difficulties mentioned above, currently Egypt is the country with the highest number of manufacturers in the region. It is the biggest elevator market of North Africa. The boom was evident at the exhibition as well. Despite the limited number of participants, thousands of sector representatives, who visited the exhibition during three days, enjoyed being together after four years. A large group of people followed up the presentations made by Mohammed Reda Asr (Egyptian Engineers Syndicate), Asm aa M.Ibrahim (ECG), Moham ed El-Nem (Nemr Consulting), Mahm oud Farghaly (PCE), Mokhtar El-Sarky (Otis) and Mohsen Shabaan’ı (Faymin Consulting) at the forum on the first day of the event.