Egyptian bottle, container and cap production
It’s Sunday 8 September and PETplanet has two appointments in 6th of October City. First, I take the Editourmobil to the PET recycler Bariq. Here I meet COO Ahmed Abdel Fattah and Marketing Manager Mrs Nour El Gammal, who, together with their team, tell me about their work as pioneers in rPET production. The company uses Starlinger recycling systems here on site and is able to produce food-grade recyclate. Sorting modules from Tomra are used to ensure smooth sorting.
After a very interesting and at the same time very warm tour of the plant, it’s straight on to the second appointment, which is practically round the corner: Aquah Group.
Here I meet the boss, Karim Al Aquah, who explains the different activities and business areas of the group. The company has a total of 13 plants in Egypt. In addition to preforms and bottles, Aquah also manufactures plastic crates and is active in synthetic fibre production. There are 15 Husky machines with up to 144 cavities in use and four out of six bottles on the market are produced by Aquah, I learn.
On Monday, I find myself in the industrial city of Badr, around 1.5 hours away from my hotel. Here I have an appointment with Tarek Zayed from Prima Pen. The company is actually a well-known manufacturer of stationery items, but thanks to a celebrated multinational detergent brand, it entered the PP and PE container sector around 20 years ago and over time, through a well-known cosmetics brand, also entered single-stage PET container production. This area is now to be successively expanded, including with equipment from ASB. Prima Pen also produces closures.
Bericap is on the programme! Our tour sponsor also has a factory in the 6th of October City, which I am invited to visit today on 10 September. Tarek Sultan is the man in charge here, who has been part of the Bericap family for 17 years. This plant not only supplies closures to Egypt, but also to 28 other countries in Africa and the Middle East. A large number of injection moulding machines from Netstal and Arburg are in use on site and around 4 billion closures roll off the production line every year.
On the way back to the hotel, the Editourmobil takes a detour via Giza City, from where you have a great view of the pyramids. The traffic today is heavy and despite the well-developed roads, it feels like it takes forever before I can sit in the hotel courtyard working again.
It’s Wednesday, the last day of my trip to Egypt. I have a long journey ahead of me today, as I’m travelling to the Alexandria Company for Industrial Packaging, or ACIP for short. The journey takes about three hours. It’s particularly hot today. The thermometer climbs to 38°C and the air conditioning in the Editourmobil can hardly keep up. At lunchtime, I sit at the table with Chairman Samy Awad and have the company and group activities explained to me. The company produces preforms on Husky systems, blows bottles using Side equipment and specialises in special closures.
After an exciting tour of the company and a final picture in front of the Editourmobil, it’s a three-hour drive back to the hotel, where I now have to pack, as my flight home is later tonight. As I’ve already heard, a cold snap has hit Central Europe in my absence, so I now have to brace myself for a drop in temperature of just under 30°C. That’s obviously it for the summer for now.
Let’s see how Alexander Büchler will fare on his section of the tour!
Best regards and see you soon
Kay Barton
