AFRICA: Tunisia: New Cement Plant to Boost Local Cement Production

A new cement plant called Sotacib Kairouan began producing cement on April 14, 2012 in the governorate of Kairouan.

With a total cost of 465 million dinars (333 US dollars), the unit has a production capacity of 1.2 million tons per year, which will bring the total Tunisian production of cement from 7.2 to 8.4 million tons by the end of 2012.

The Sotacib Kairouan Unit is a subsidiary of the Spanish industrial group Cementos Molins. Since late 2007, Cementos Molins S.A. owns a 65% stake in the Société Tuniso-Andalouse of Ciment Blanc, SA (SOTACIB), a Tunisian company dedicated to the production of cement. Its factory in Feriana, central-west Tunisia, has an annual production capacity of 700,000 tons of white cement. It mainly exports its cement products to Algeria and Libya. Sotacib Kairouan Unit produces grey cement with a production capacity of 1.4 million tons per year.

The plant produces almost 4,000 tons of cement per day and employs over 150 Tunisian employees. The Sotacib Kairouan Unit is expected to provide the Tunisian market with big amounts of cement and reduce monopoly and speculation of the product, which previously led to soaring prices for cement in Tunisia.

Tunisia's oldest cement plant is located in Bizerte, which was set up in 1952 during French colonization, and produces 900,000 tons of cement per year.