Tunis – A small cabinet meeting, chaired Tuesday by Prime Minister Sarra Zaafrani Zenzri, examined the restructuring of the Bizerte Cement Company.

According to a statement issued by the Prime Ministry, the meeting also reviewed ways to revive investment in this public enterprise, considered one of the country’s major long-standing national institutions, that is contributing to the development of the cement sector, a vital strategic sector in Tunisia.

The Prime Minister stressed that the meeting falls within the framework of implementing the President of the Republic’s directives to preserve public enterprises and facilities, avoid their privatisation, and restructure them to achieve their founding objectives, improve performance, and carry out deep and structural reforms to ensure better productivity, restore financial balance and enhance competitiveness in the medium and long term.

Zenzri emphasised the need to support the Bizerte Cement Company and initiate its restructuring to rescue it from its current difficult situation, ensuring its continuity as an economic pillar and restoring its position and influence locally, regionally, and internationally.

She noted that the cement sector, which includes nine manufacturing companies with a production capacity of nearly 12 million tonnes, is a vital sector in Tunisia, employing more than 4,000 people, while contributing to development and generating foreign currency through exports and access to foreign markets.

She also pointed out that the company has significant logistical assets, including its own commercial port quay with a strategic location on the Mediterranean Sea, equipped with modern infrastructure, availability of raw construction materials, proximity to the plant, railway connectivity, substantial real estate assets, and a strong brand reputation, in addition to opportunities to regain its position in domestic and foreign markets.

The Prime Minister recalled that the Bizerte Cement Company is among the oldest national institutions that contributed to the development of the national economy. Established in 1950 under the name “Portland Cement of Bizerte,” production started in 1953 before the company was nationalised in 1959, becoming since then a key pillar of the cement production sector and a major supplier to large-scale projects, contributing to building Tunisia and opening up to foreign markets, particularly Mediterranean countries.

During the meeting, a detailed presentation was made on the company’s current technical and financial situation, human resources, commercial activity, restructuring programme, key proposed structural reforms, and its investment plan structured over three phases.

The first phase of the investment plan aims to resume production by restarting the clinker production line, maintaining production mechanisms, reducing reliance on external services, and controlling costs. The second phase focuses on increasing production capacity, notably through upgrading equipment and improving workshop operations.

The third phase will focus on development and energy management, ensuring environmental protection by optimising energy consumption in line with environmental standards, preserving the ecosystem, strengthening competitiveness, and implementing an integrated information system.

The council recommended launching structural reforms and the investment programme, improving the company’s commercial performance, and, in the short term, continuing the purchase and processing of clinker to ensure supply continuity, maintain market share, preserve a positive profit margin, and reduce cement production costs to maintain competitive pricing.

It also recommended reactivating railway transport to reduce logistics costs, encouraging the use of bulk cement for its economic and environmental benefits, and establishing a sales branch in the capital while expanding sales in the northwestern regions and Greater Bizerte.

Among the long-term recommendations are developing the company’s commercial port activity to boost clinker and cement exports, diversifying its product range, targeting promising export markets, and supporting the company in financing its operating cycle and urgent investment programme, improving its position in the domestic market, regaining its historical market share, and maintaining financial balance.

The Prime Minister stressed that investing in the Bizerte Cement Company and the Tunisian Steel Company “El Fouladh” and restructuring them represents a strategic choice for the State, as they are key national industrial pillars and drivers of economic and social development. This approach aims to strengthen national sovereignty by developing the cement sector, diversifying products, boosting exports to promising markets, preserving the industrial fabric, ensuring local steel supply, and safeguarding foreign currency, in line with the State’s strategy to develop public enterprises, ensure their sustainability, and transform them into engines of economic growth.

She reaffirmed that these institutions, along with other public enterprises, will remain State-owned and constitute part of Tunisia’s national wealth and achievements, adding that efforts are currently underway to restructure and rescue them to ensure their sustainability and restore their role as key drivers of the national industry and the Tunisian economy.

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