60 printing presses submitted their tenders for text book printing for the next academic year (2022-23) as required by Egypt’s Ministry of Education and Technical Education.
The Chamber of Printing & Packaging Industries of the Federation of Egyptian Industries (FEI) stated that the Ministry opened the invitations of potential press units just a few days ago, provided that field visits are conducted to the premises to determine the volume of production the presses are capable of handling and the quality of output.
The tenders will be opened within weeks after the end of the field visits to the printing presses to determine the capacity of each printing press. In this context, “It is likely that the prices of textbook printing will rise next year compared to the prices this year,” say industry sources.
Prominent printing presses applying for the tender include Al Akhbar, Al-Ashraf Printing House, Al Gomhouria, Dar El Tayssir, El Ahram for Printing & Packaging, El-Amiriya Press, El Tawfikia, General Egyptian Book Authority, Nahdet Misr Publishing Group, Police Press, Rose El Youssef, and Sahara Printing Company.
Sources pointed out that the global crises which have caused huge disturbances in the global maritime mobility and the high cost of paper, globally and locally, will be reflected by higher quotes for printing textbooks. It is also learnt that most of the printing presses participating in the textbook tender for the next academic year have raw materials to suffice them until June or next July at the very least.
Such annual tenders also prove to be a lifeline for many printing presses due to the increased financial burden witnessed by the printing and packaging sectors as a result of steep hike in imported raw materials, energy pricing, acute shortage of labour, etc.
But with the Minister of Education Tarek Shawki stating that the Egyptian school curricula will be made available in electronic form, a decrease in the volume of printed textbooks is expected. The tender also included the printing of textbooks in Braille.
