Egyptian battery maker BME and China’s CATL signed a contract on September 13 for a plant producing battery systems. Egypt’s State Information Service said the first phase is designed for 1 gigawatt-hour of annual capacity, with initial investment above EGP2 billion, or about $39 million.

A second phase is intended to raise annual capacity to 5 GWh and add passenger-car and renewable-energy storage batteries. The project targets 40% local content and domestic and export markets. These are planned capacities and targets; the source did not report construction completion or production.