Tunisian cement producers sign new AF charter

Nine Tunisian cement plants have signed a new charter on sustainable development and social responsibility, which seeks to harness new energy and alternative fuels produced through waste recovery.

"The industrialists of nine cement plants, signatories of this charter, will be led to use the waste and to valorise non-recyclable and non-reusable products as alternative fuel," said Samir Majoul, president of the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (UTICA).

Mr Majoul added that this new approach is likely to improve the competitiveness of the sector and reduce the cost of importing petcoke.

"This new approach will allow the sector to consider a 20 per cent substitution rate by 2030, thus recovering 3Mt of waste treated and converted into alternative fuels," said the president of UTICA.

Ibrahim Sanaa, representative of the National Chamber of Cement Industry and director general of Carthage Cement, added that the recovery of waste will allow cement plants to reduce the cost of energy used for production by 10 per cent annually.