Egypt's GB Auto urges support for industry to avert future crisis

gypt's largest car assembler and distributor GB Auto says it is pushing ahead with its expansion plans despite a dollar shortage that disrupted production this year, and urged the government to support manufacturing to avert future crises.

GB Auto was forced to halt production for 20 days in September and October because a shortage of dollars and central bank restrictions meant it was unable to clear shipments of manufacturing components for a period of about six weeks.

Despite the stoppage, strong demand saw the company post a near 90 percent increase in profit in the third quarter, but Chief Executive Officer Raouf Ghabbour said earnings would have been 20 percent higher still if not for the disruptions.

Speaking at his office on the edge of Cairo, Ghabbour said the impact on the bottom line would diminish further in the last quarter after banks supplied $1.8 billion dollars to the market this month to clear the import bottleneck.