Cairo - Mubasher:The board of directors of Egyptian Iron and Steel (HADISOLB)addressed the government to protect the steel's national industry.

The protection measures include limiting the exports of the steel and iron products, as well as providing the company with gas supplies at the price of $4/MMBtu.

Meanwhile, the company requested a mechanism to guarantee the loan required to implement the restructure of its development process, according to the memorandum of understanding (MoU) it signed earlier with Chinese firm Sinosteel.

The revamp will cost an estimated $420 million and take two years from the date of the MoU, which will lead to an output of 1.2 million metric tons of steel per year.

Sinosteel will offer the $420 million in the form of a loan granted by Egypt’s finance ministry.