In what is one of the largest single project investments in Egypt by the Chinese, China’s Sailun Group has broken ground on a $1 billion tyre factory in Egypt’s Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone). The investment also marks the first large-scale tire manufacturing factory by a major Chinese tyre company in Africa.
According to reports from the Egyptian minister of transportation, Egypt consumes around 16 million tyres annually, with only 15% currently produced locally.
The plant sits in the TEDA-Egypt developer area of the Sokhna integrated industrial zone and will roll out its first tyres in 2026. At full scale, output is expected to top 10 million tyres a year (62% of current demand), serving Egypt and export markets.
At that level, Egypt would go head-to-head with South Africa—the continent’s largest producer at roughly 8.1 million tyres in 2025 (about 34% of Africa’s output)—where the market is anchored by four established manufacturers: Bridgestone, Continental, Goodyear, and Sumitomo (Dunlop).
Walid Gamal El-Din, who heads the SCZone General Authority and attended the ceremony, called the project “a strategic step” toward making Egypt a regional production and export hub for autos and parts.
The factory supports the government’s push to localise the automotive industry and build integrated industrial clusters around it.
The site spans 350,000 square metres and will be built in three phases over three years. Phase one targets annual production of 3 million passenger car tyres and 600,000 truck and bus tyres and will create about 1,500 jobs. Later phases lift capacity to meet local demand and widen export reach across the region.
Sailun is a major global tyre maker with plants in China and Vietnam and sales in more than 180 countries and regions. Company figures show annual production of roughly 88 million passenger car radial (PCR) tyres, 26.6 million truck and bus radial (TBR) tyres, and about 310,000 tonnes of off-the-road (OTR) tyres.
The Sokhna plant is meant to be a central manufacturing base for North Africa and nearby markets. The investment also reflects a wider trend as Chinese capital continues to grow quickly in Egypt in recent years.
More than 2,800 Chinese companies now operate in the market with total investments above $8 billion, according to Egypt’s investment authority.
Within the SCZone alone, Chinese commitments exceeded $4 billion over the past three years as of July 2025, representing roughly 40% of total zone investment as of May 2024.
For Egypt, this is a real momentum builder—jobs, quicker supply, and a shot at kinder tyre prices. If the model sticks, the ripple could reach wider Africa with stronger local sourcing and less import drag.
