According to a survey conducted by Arab News, since Israel launched the war against the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, Egypt's total and volume of cement exports to Israel have experienced a historic surge. The findings are based on data from the Egyptian Council for the Export of Construction Materials, the Egyptian Central Mobilization and Statistics Bureau, and the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics. According to the data, Egypt's total cement exports to Israel in 2024 (one year after the war) increased by 29 times compared with 2022 (one year before the war), and the export volume increased by 45 times in just two years.
Specifically, Egypt's cement exports to Israel soared from 52300 tons in 2022 to 2.4 million tons in 2024, an increase of more than 45 times. Meanwhile, total exports jumped from 16.43 million NIS (about 4.9 million U.S. dollars) in 2022 to 525.73 million NIS (about 142 million U.S. dollars) in 2024, a nearly 29-fold increase in dollar terms. In 2023, a transitional year, the total export volume increased by about 3.8 times and the quantity increased by more than 5 times compared with 2022, while in 2024, the quantity increased by about 8.5 times and the total amount increased by about 7.7 times, indicating that the demand continued to grow steadily, rather than a short burst of demand. In the second half of
2024, Israel's total cement imports from Egypt amounted to 391.4 million NIS ( $105.8 million), compared with 134.31 million NIS ( $36.3 million) in the first half. From June to December, monthly imports exceeded 50 million NIS ( $13.5 million), with a peak of 88.9 million NIS ( $24 million) in December, accounting for 16.9% of the total for the year. This shows that Israel's dependence on Egyptian cement continued to increase in the second half of 2024, and this growth is not a short-term fluctuation, but a continuous expansion trend.
Turkey was once a major supplier of cement to Israel, which imported about $282 million of cement from Turkey in 2023, compared with only about $16.8 million from Egypt. However, on 9 April 2024, Turkey restricted exports to Israel in 54 categories of goods, including construction materials such as cement, and on 2 May, Turkey announced a complete halt to trade with Israel until a ceasefire is reached and aid is allowed to enter Gaza. Since then, Egypt has quickly filled the gap in the market. In 2024, Israel's ranking in Egyptian cement export destinations jumped from 35th in 2022 to 4th, becoming one of the top four export destinations after Egyptian cement, and the top three were Libya, Palestine and Ivory Coast.
Although Egyptian cement exports to Israel have increased significantly, export prices have continued to decline. According to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, the average import price of Egyptian cement fell from $93.6 per ton in 2022 to $66.6 in 2023 and $59.8 in 2024.