Sijia Zhao

While the implementation of Chinese megaprojects in the Middle East and North African region has dominated critical global literature and doomsday policy discourses on the growing influence of China, the study of everyday transactions has gone unnoticed. This study aims to trace current investments by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in construction materials by Chinese co-owned workshops and factories in Egypt, with a focus on Cairo and Alexandria. We adopt an exploratory qualitative approach to trace growing partnerships between Chinese and Egyptian businesses in construction materials, namely steel and marble. Concerning the former, several co-owned factories have established supply chains of sourcing scrap iron and selling billets to other construction companies. We question how these companies procure the required materials, their local and international clientele, and how they form ‘invisible’ forces in the shaping of new relations of steel production with almost no Egyptian media scrutiny. On the other hand, the influence of Chinese businesses on the marble industry has been greatly documented in Egyptian media since the 2010s, and here we question how the very visible presence of Chinese businesses has led to changes in the supply chain and value of marble at the local level. This research will provide new insights into everyday interactions of SMEs in the production of construction materials, modalities of partnerships shaping Chinese investments, and the socio-economic impact on local urban economies.