FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Answers below reflect Egypt Globe Group's standing terms. Specification, quantity, packing and Incoterm are fixed per contract; the export desk confirms within 24 hours whether a tender specification can be met in full.

Commercial terms

How quickly do you respond to an RFQ?
Within 24 hours. The export desk reviews every RFQ within the first hour and routes it to the commodity-specific team. A priced offer (FOB / CIF / CFR) is issued by the next business day. Submit through the RFQ form or by email to [email protected].

What is the typical lead time?
2–4 weeks from confirmed order to vessel sailing for most bulk commodities. Salt and cement can sail within 2 weeks; specialty chemicals and pharmaceutical-grade products may take 4–6 weeks for batch production and QC.

What Incoterms do you offer?

Definitions are summarised under Incoterms 2020.

What payment terms?

Which ports do you load from?
7 Egyptian ports: Damietta, Port Said East (SCCT), Alexandria, El-Dekheila, Ain Sokhna, Safaga, El-Arish. The port closest to the source is selected for inland-cost optimization — see Loading ports.

Minimum order quantity?
Typical MOQ is 1,000 MT for bulk commodities (salt, fertilizer, cement, aggregate, grain), 100 MT for specialty chemicals, 25 MT for high-value processed goods. Smaller orders are accommodated for trial shipments.

Do you offer custom blends?
Yes. Send the tender specification; the export desk confirms whether every parameter can be met and quotes a custom-blend price within 24 hours. Common requests: salt grain-size mixing, NPK fertilizer blending, aggregate gradation matching. A custom blend is certified per lot like any standard grade.

Sample policy
Samples are available on request. Contact [email protected] with the destination address.

Certification and documentation

What certifications do you provide?
A per-shipment Certificate of Analysis (CoA) is standard. Pre-Shipment Inspection (TÜV Austria / SGS / Intertek / Bureau Veritas / Cotecna) is arranged on request. An Egyptian Chamber of Commerce-stamped Certificate of Origin accompanies every shipment. Phytosanitary, EUR1 and other specialty documents are issued as needed — see Documentation.

Quality assurance

What is tested on each lot?
Every lot is analysed by the port laboratory against the parameters written into the contract specification before the Bill of Lading is issued. For salt that means NaCl content, moisture, water-insolubles, calcium, magnesium and sulphate, particle-size distribution and, for food or pharmaceutical grades, heavy metals; for cement it means the chemical and physical parameters of EN 197-1 or ASTM C150 recorded on a Mill Test Certificate; for fertilizers, nutrient content and physical grading; for agro, sizing, Brix and phytosanitary status. Upstream, the source laboratory at the mine or saltworks samples every blast or harvest and the plant checks every batch during processing, so the port result is the third test on the same lot code.

What happens to a lot that is out of specification?
It is rejected at the loading port. A lot outside the CoA is never re-graded, re-described or renegotiated into the shipment; it is removed from the loading plan and replaced with conforming material. Zero tolerance on specification deviation has been the group's operating rule since its Quality Assurance division was established at incorporation in 2014.

Who carries out inspection?
Egypt Globe Group's own QA division performs source, processing and port-laboratory testing on every lot. Independent inspection — sampling per ISO / ASTM methods, draft survey, witness testing and destination conformity verification (PVoC, SONCAP, SABER) — is performed on buyer instruction by TÜV Austria (primary partner for EU and GCC lots), SGS, Intertek (US / UK / East Africa), Bureau Veritas or Cotecna. All five are ISO/IEC 17020 and 17025 accredited. Scope is described under Inspection services.

Are samples retained?
Yes. A sealed retained sample is held for every certified lot at the port laboratory, referenced by lot code, so that any arrival discrepancy can be checked against the material that was actually loaded. Independent inspectors draw and seal their own samples in parallel when instructed.

What is the difference between a CoA and a Mill Test Certificate?
Both are per-lot quality certificates issued by the port laboratory before B/L. A Certificate of Analysis reports the chemical and physical analysis of a natural or processed commodity (salt, minerals, fertilizers, agro). A Mill Test Certificate is the cement-industry equivalent: it records the producing mill, the cement type and strength class, and the chemical and physical results required by EN 197-1 or ASTM C150. Either document is the evidence the buyer's arrival laboratory reconciles against.

Where is the specification binding?
At the port of loading. Specification is guaranteed at the Egyptian loading port and is binding under the sales contract; the CoA or MTC issued there is the contractual record. Cargo condition during the voyage and at destination is governed by the Bill of Lading and marine insurance, which is why the group recommends independent marine cover and acceptance testing at destination for high-value or critical applications. The full charter is at Quality & Compliance.