Displaying items by tag: Libya

Libya: Ahmed Abuhisa, the Minister of Industry and Minerals, has laid the foundation stone for a new cement plant at Al-Shahba. Al-Shahba Cement and National Mining Corporation have signed a deal to build the 1Mt/yr plant in Cyrenaica region, according to the Libya Herald newspaper. The project is part of the ministry’s plan to localise industry in the country, provide job opportunities for young people and drive development. Al-Shahba, which is 100km from the city of Tobruk, is without paved roads and suffers from water scarcity, limited electricity access and the loss of public services.

Libya: Tripoli residents whose homes have been damaged during fighting between government and Libyan National Army forces will receive priority access to cement. The Libya Herald has reported that the Libyan Interior Ministry has established a committee to coordinate between state-owned Ahlia Cement Company and citizens involved in reconstruction. It said that the committee will update people who have ordered cement on their scheduled deliveries. The initiative is intended to overcome allegations of corruption connected to obtaining cement from the producer.

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: The Ministry of Industry and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises has issued a decree authorising the use of polypropylene cement bags, with the aim of increasing the competitiveness of Tunisian cement against rival Turkish products on the Libyan market. The Economiste Maghrebin newspaper has reported that the loss of a valuable exporter market following Algeria’s attainment of a cement surplus led the ministry to enact the cost-cutting policy. In January 2020, Algeria enacted a progressive prohibition on this type of packaging with a view to a blanket ban from 1 January 2021.

Minister of Industry and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Salah Ben Youssef says that his department “submitted a report on the impacts of the use of polypropylene packaging for cement to the Ministry of the Environment in May 2020 and received no reply,” but implemented the initiative because it was the only viable alternative to kraft bags, which he says are “overpriced due to monopolies in raw materials and assembly.” Ben Youssef said that polypropylene bags, which are permitted for use in food, lime, animal feed and fertilisers packaging, are “both recyclable and reusable,” and would enable the Tunisian cement industry to become self-sufficient in serving its bagging needs. As a further cost-cutting measure, Ben Youssef proposed that the government establish a solar power plant in order to reduce cement companies’ total energy bills by US$5.13m/yr.

The 16Mt/yr-capacity Tunisian cement sector, which includes international companies such as Carthage Cement and Brazil-based Votorantim Cimentos subsidiary La Cimenterie de Jbel Oust, produced 11Mt of cement in 2019 against a domestic demand of 7.0Mt.

Libya: The Libyan Cement Company (LCC) says taxes, poor weather and local fighting have hampered its progress over the last year. The introduction of a 183% Foreign Exchange Tax in the last quarter of 2018 has tripled the price of imported spare parts, supplies and capital goods. This has delayed repairs to the cement producer’s plants. However the company believes that the tax may be lowered in the near future. A long and wet winter has also been blamed for reducing the demand for cement and reducing the company’s cash flow.

Fighting in Tripoli has affected the LCC’s operations in the east of the country with multi-month long interruptions to the supply of raw materials. It said that key roads have recently been re-opened following negotiations relieving the situation and that it hopes they will stay open.

The company said that it is still working towards a Euro200m upgrade project to its plant in Benghazi. The plan is to increase the unit’s production capacity to 3Mt/yr from 2Mt/yr.

Libya: The Libyan Cement Company plans to spend Euro200m on an upgrade to its plant in Benghazi. The project will increase the unit’s production capacity to 3Mt/yr from 2Mt/yr at present. Planning is at an advanced stage, with tenders already issued for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of a mixture of new and upgraded facilities. The Central Bank of Libya, other banks and other investors will supply finance for the project.

The cement producer reopened its Benghazi plant in late February 2019. It has over 1000 employees with more openings to follow.

Libya: The Libyan Fund for Internal Investment and Development and the National Company for Building Material Industry have signed a partnership deal to build a 1.6Mt/yr cement plant at Nalut. The agreement follows collaboration between the Presidential Council and the Central Bank of Libya in order to build the economy, according to the Libya Observer.

Libya: German investors have met with the mayor of Al-Bayda to discuss building a cement plant in Cyrenaica. The proposed plant will have a production capacity of 4000t/day, according to the Libya Observer. The plant will be located south of Al-Bayda.

Egypt: Arabian Cement plans to increase its exports to Africa and Asia. A senior official said the cement producer is considering international expansion amidst strong competition at home, according to Daily News Egypt. At present the company has exported cement to Libya, Yemen, Kenya, Madagascar and Somalia.

Arabian Cement is a joint venture between Spain’s Grupo Cementos La Unión, the majority shareholder, and a group of local investors. It operates a 5Mt/yr cement plant in Suez governorate.

Libya: British consultants on behalf of the Libyan Cement Company have met with the Benghazi Mayor Abdelrahman Al-Abaar in order to help restart two cement plants in Benghazi and Hawari. Work is due to commence on removing land mines from the sites as well as an assessment of damage caused to the units from fighting that took place in 2016, according to the Libya Herald newspaper. The Libyan Cement Company announced that it was going to reopen the plants in May 2017.