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.