‘Electricity price hikes extra burden on industry sector’

AMMAN — The Jordan Chamber of Industry on Monday said that high electricity prices will affect the industrial sector by hurting the competitiveness in export markets.

Energy prices are considered one of the biggest challenges that face the industrial sector, especially medium- and small-scale industrial enterprises, the chamber said in a statement.

The sector is suffering from high production costs, especially of raw materials, Chamber Chief Adnan Abu Raghib said in the statement adding that electricity bills constitute around 35 per cent of the production costs.

The chief of electricity committee, Mohammad Kharabshih, said in the statement that the industrial sector is the second largest consumer of electricity and that increasing its prices would add new burdens to the sector.