Tunisia: Les Ciments de Bizerte continues to face disruptions due to a financial crisis, limiting its operations to grinding imported clinker and managing petcoke shipments for third parties, African Manager News reports. Clinker production has been suspended throughout the second quarter of 2024, due to a lack of petcoke.
Cement production plummeted by 70% to 33,282t in the second quarter of 2024 from 109,855t during the same period in 2023. Lime production also declined by 37% due to reduced national demand. Local sales in the first half of 2024 decreased by 60% from US$16.3m in 2023 to US$6.6m in 2024, with exports completely halted during the first half of 2024. The company is in the process of paying off its debts.
