Minister of Trade and Industry Tarek Kabil issued a decision to keep current export duties unchanged for a number of mining materials, including talcum powder, quartz and feldspar, blocks of marble, granite, and sand for a year, starting 10 February.
The minister said, in a press statement on Monday, that the decision aims to encourage local industry through the provision of production inputs locally and through maintaining the strategic reserves of quarry and mining materials in order to achieve the highest surplus value in supporting national industry.
According to the decree, the value of the export duties on ultra-fine talcum powder (50 microns and less) is EGP 300 per tonne.
He pointed out that the exports of talcum powder reached 12,000 tonnes in 2017 compared to between 4,500 and 5,500 tonnes during the period from 2014 to 2016, which necessitated the continued imposition of the same export duties on them.
Kabil added that the decree also included the continuation of imposing the current export duties on talc blocks and milling at EGP 900 per tonne.
He explained that, when first introduced, this decree contributed to the decline of talc exports to reach 12,000 tonnes in 2017 compared to 17,000 tonnes in 2016, which feeds into meeting national industry needs of talc.
The decree also stipulates that feldspar export duties should be kept at EGP 400 per tonne.
Feldspar exports last year amounted to 427 tonnes compared to 54 tonnes in 2016.
Furthermore, Kabil said that the decree also stipulated maintaining the current export duties on the blocks of raw granite which is EGP 400 per tonne.
He pointed out that the exports of marble blocks and granite last year amounted to 416,000 tonnes compared to 1.6m tonnes in 2013.
The minister assured that the decree also includes the continuation of the imposed export duty on sand, which is EGP 100 per tonne, pointing to the stability of annual exports of sand ranging from 950,00 tonnes to 1.1m tonnes as the raw material is available and has low market value on world markets.
Last December, the minister of trade and industry issued a decree to continue imposing the current export duties on haberdashery and raw materials of some minerals for another year starting from 26 December 2017.
