Displaying items by tag: Ciments de Bizerte

Tunisia: The Ministry of Industry, Mines, and Energy has announced that Souheil Arfaoui has been appointed as the CEO of Ciments de Bizerte, according to the La Presse de Tunisie newspaper. He previously worked as Administrative and Financial Director at the Agency for the Promotion of Industry and Innovation. The government is the majority owner of the cement producer.

Tunisia: Les Ciments de Bizerte recorded a 69% year-on-year fall in sales to US$9.2m in 2024, down from US$30.3m in 2023, amid a complete halt to clinker production.

The company published its financial statements for the year ending 31 December 2024, revealing production costs of US$7.6m and a record high net loss of US$14.9m, up from a US$11.3m deficit in 2023. It purchased 114,128t of clinker to attempt to supply the market, but failed to meet demand due to the production halt.

Tunisia: Société les Ciments de Bizerte’s local sales fell by 77.43% in the third quarter of 2024 compared with the same period in 2023, to US$1.7m in 2024. This decrease is due to the total cessation of clinker production during this period. Similarly, the total turnover of Société Les Ciments de Bizerte fell in the third quarter of 2024 due to the domestic sales situation and a total absence of exports. As a result of the company’s ongoing financial crisis, it has not been able to meet its commitments to suppliers or its bank debts.

The company made just 16,796t of cement during the third quarter of 2024, 75,020t less than in the same period of 2023 when it produced 91,816t.

Tunisia: Les Ciments de Bizerte has announced that it experienced financial difficulties during the first quarter of 2024. The company was unable to import petcoke due to a lack of cash and looming loan repayments, leading to the total suspension of clinker production. This left the company only able to grind existing clinker and operate its quay. As a result, the company’s total sales in the first quarter of 2024 fell by 53% year-on-year compared to the same period in 2023, falling from US$8.3m to US$3.9m.

Tunisia: Les Ciments de Bizerte recorded a full-year consolidated turnover of US$40.1m in 2022, corresponding to a drop of 5.4% year-on-year from 2021 levels. The producer's clinker production fell by 24% year-on-year to 538,000t. African Manager News has reported that the company faced a forced stoppage during the year due to a disruption to its raw materials supply. Meanwhile, its costs increased amid rises in the price of petcoke, electricity, diesel and packaging materials.

Tunisia: The overall turnover of Les Ciments de Bizerte rose by 17.8% year-on-year in 2021, to US$45.1m in 2021, from US$38.2m in 2020. Its local turnover rose by 5% to US$38.1m from US$36.3m. The company’s export turnover soared by 256% from US$1.96m to US$6.96m. The volume of cement it produced in 2021 was 673,079t, up by 17,829t (2.7%) compared to 2020.

Tunisia: Carthage University, Ciments de Bizerte, the Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and the University of Algarve faculty of science and technology have concluded a study into the heavy metal content of CEM-I and CEM-II cement. The study found that both types of cement contain traces of arsenic, barium, boron, cadmium, chromium, copper, manganese, nickel, lead, strontium and zinc in equal measure, according to the Journal of Engineering.

Carthage University said, "Heavy metals in cement can originate from a variety of processes in production, including their initial presence in raw materials and fuel, incorporation into kiln refractory brick, metal erosion from the raw material grinding process and in additives such as gypsum, as well as cement kiln dust."

Tunisia: Ciments de Bizerte dispatched its first batch of cement since 2008 from the Port of Bizerte on 19 October 2020. Agency Tunis Afrique Press has reported that the cement was sold on the Libyan market. The development follows Ciments de Bizerte’s investment in an upgrade of its quay at the Port of Bizerte.

Tunisia: Ciments de Bizerte is planning to upgrade the cement grinding capacity by 20% at its plant in Bizerte. Other anticipated upgrades include the installation of a new 10,000t cement silo and the contruction of a captive wind farm, according to the L'Economiste Maghrébin magazine.

Tunisia: Ciments de Bizerte has restarted exports of clinker and cement after a hiatus of ten years. A shipment of 25,000t of clinker disembarked from the cement producer’s port to Cameroon in early April 2018, according to La Presse de Tunisie newspaper. The local cement industry has an overcapcty of 1Mt/yr.