Pirelli has no plans to leave Egypt

Italy's Pirelli has no plans to leave Egypt, despite the turmoil in the country, as the world's fifth-largest tyremaker is looking to emerging markets to offset weakness in Russia and Europe.

"We don't have any reason to leave the Egyptian market because also it's a good basis for exports," Pirelli chairman and CEO Marco Tronchetti Provera said in a conference call on second-quarter results.

Pirelli generates almost 60 percent of its sales in emerging economies and has been able to generate cost efficiencies by building low-cost manufacturing sites in these countries. The group has been in Egypt since 1999.

"We build factories not for the next months but for the next decades," Tronchetti Provera said.

But Russia will be a drag on growth this year because of a slowdown in economic activity in the country that had depressed demand and led to higher costs due to underused production facilities.

"The Russia scenario is worsening," the Pirelli chief said. The company has two factories in the country which started production in the last year.