Displaying items by tag: Tunisia
Fire reported at Djebel El Ouest cement plant
17 July 2017Tunisia: Fire fighters have controlled a fire that broke out at the Djebel El Ouest cement plant. The fire started on the ground floor of the plant, according to Tunis Afrique Presse. It then damaged electrical cabling and equipment. It is suspected to have been caused by a short circuit in an electrical machine caused by rising temperatures. No casualties have been reported.
Tunisia: Al Karama Holding, a state-owned company, has initiated a bidding process to sell its stake in Carthage Cement. The company has started a consultation process with investment banks and consultation firms to help it sell its direct and indirect stakes in BINA Group, that includes Carthage Cement, according to the African Manager website. The deadline for bids is 16 June 2017. The government owns an estimated 41% share of the cement producer.
Tunisian government to sell stake in Carthage Cement
01 March 2017Tunisia: Finance Minister Lamia Zribi has said that the Tunisian government has decided to sell its share in Carthage Cement. It owns an estimated 41% share of the cement producer, according to Tunis Afrique Presse. Zribi said that the decision was due to financial problems at the company as well as issues with production and export. Carthage Cement's chief executive Ibrahim Sanaa has blamed a rise in production costs on a poor construction market and production overcapacity.
Semapa’s cement sales fall slightly in 2016
20 February 2017Portugal: Semapa’s sales revenue from its cement business fell by 1.35% year-on-year to Euro471m in 2016. Its earning before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 0.3% to Euro85.1m. It attributed the slight fall in revenue to a fall in turnover in Portugal and Tunisia, although it noted that it rose in Brazil.
Its sales volumes of Ordinary Portland Cement rose by 5% to 4.99Mt from 4.73Mt but its clinker sales fell by 13% to 0.42Mt from 0.48Mt. Despite the poor state of the construction market in Brazil, the cement producer’s local firm, Supremo Cimentos, managed to increase its sales as its Adrianópolis plant increased its production in the year following its opening in mid-2015.
Cementos Portland Valderrivas makes loss of Euro225m in 2016
07 February 2017Spain: Cementos Portland Valderrivas (CPV) has made a loss of Euro225m in 2016. It increased from a loss of Euro62m in 2015. It reported that its sales fell by 7.6% year-on-year to Euro536m in 2016 from Euro580m in 2015. It attributed this to the sale of its US subsidiary, Giant Cement, falling sales in Tunisia, a decrease in the value of the Tunisian dinar and rising fuel prices.
The cement producer’s sales volumes of cement fell slightly to 7.2Mt in 2016. However, once sales from Giant Cement are removed then, its sales volumes rose by 1.6% due to a 49% increase in exports from Spain. This compensated for declining markets in Spain and Tunisia.
The cement producer said that overall cement consumption in Spain fell by 3.1% to 11.1Mt in 2016, although this was partially offset by exports rising by 5.6% to 9.8Mt. Reduced domestic demand and rising exports have led to clinker production rising slightly in 2016 to 17Mt. It added that cement consumption increases were slowing down in the US, although the regions its subsidiary Giant Cement operates in reported above average increases of almost 11% to November 2016 in the South East, Mid Atlantic and New England regions. In Tunisia it reported that the market fell by 3.9% to 7.2Mt and that exports to Algeria and Libya had fallen.
New cement plant in Tunisia to open in 2018
26 October 2016Tunisia: A new 1Mt/yr cement plant in Sidi Bouzid is set to open in 2018, according to Director General of Manufacturing Industry Brahim Chebili in an interview with African Manager. The project is budgeted at US$220m and will create 300 jobs.
Carthage Cement grows domestic market as exports slump
20 October 2016Tunisia: Carthage Cement’s turnover grew by 17% to US$66.2m in the nine months to 30 September 2016, compared to US$55.8m a year earlier. Locally, the firm’s sales reached US$42.3m, a rise of 21% from US$34.9m in the same period of 2015. This growth helped Carthage Cement bring its market share up to 19% in Tunisia, compared to 15.5% a year earlier. This bucked the trend in the sector, which contracted by 3.3% year-on-year between the review periods.
In terms of exports, sales fell by 2% to US$8.4m from January to September 2016, against US$8.5m in the first nine months of 2015. The third quarter of 2016 saw a higher decrease year-on-year, of 16%. The firm said it was due to a lower demand from Algeria in particular.
Ciments de Bizerte reports sales and production growth in the first nine months of 2015
26 October 2015Tunisia: Ciments de Bizerte's sales increased by 2.3% year-on-year to US$160,937 in the third quarter of 2015. Clinker production grew by 47.5% to 55,050t during the quarter.
Domestic sales in the first nine months of 2015 grew by 21.8% to US$3.64m. Total sales grew by 4.25% to US$832,581 due to falling exports, which was mainly due to fluctuation of the Algerian market and the virtual absence of demand from the Libyan market.
Grey and white cement sales down in Tunisia
07 August 2015Tunisia: According to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Energy, grey cement production grew by 0.99% year-on-year to 4.75Mt in the first six months of 2015 from 4.7Mt in the first half of 2014. The amount sold locally fell by 6.29% 3.73Mt, compared to 3.98Mt in the first half 2014. Exports increased by 33.8% from 722,248t to 966,095t. In the first half of 2015, white cement production fell by 11.1% to 222,408t from 250,096t in the same period in 2014. Local sales of white cement fell by 6.69% to 96,551t from 103,476 in 2014.
Carthage Cement improves its position in the sector
13 July 2015Tunisia: According to African Manager, data published by the National Chamber of Cement Producers points to a year-on-year improvement in the position of Carthage Cement in the first four months of 2014.
Carthage Cement's domestic sales have increased by 44% to 349,823t in the first four months of 2015 compared to 242,0315t in 2014, despite the 6.69% decline of total cement sector sales. Carthage Cement's total sales in the first four months of 2015 rose by 36.6% to 420,923t compared to a cement sector decrease of 1.57%.