VOESTALPINE Schienen and Egyptian Iron & Steel Co signed a memorandum of understanding on June 6 for the production of rails under licence in Egypt.
Part of the state-owned Egyptian Metallurgical Industries group, EISCO would use technology and technical support from Voestalpine to produce 36m rails at an upgraded heavy-section rolling mill located south of Cairo.
Marking another step towards the internationalisation of the Voestalpine group, the agreement would be the company’s first co-operation agreement for the production of rails outside Europe. The memorandum of understanding follows the creation in 2002 of a joint venture between Egyptian National Railways and Voestalpine’s Railway Systems Division to develop turnouts.
H The Railway Systems Division reported a turnover of €1·3bn in the 2003-04 financial year; it has around 7000 employees.
