The transport of phosphate from the cities of the mining basin of Gafsa to the factories of the Tunisian Chemical Group (GCT) in Mdhilla (Gafsa), Skhira (Sfax) and Gabès and of the Tunisian-Indian Fertilizer Company (Tifert) in Skhira is experiencing strong drop due to a strike by phosphate train drivers since September 28, 2022.
Until the end of last September, the Tunisian National Railway Company (SNCFT) was only able to transport 1,165,000 tons, against an estimate of 3.3 million tons. In 24 working days, the Gafsa Phosphate Company (CPG) was only able to transport 216,000 tonnes by truck, a more expensive and therefore less profitable means of transport.
We learn that a quantity of phosphates estimated at 1,432,000 is ready to be loaded, since October 24, 2021, in the CPG extraction site in the Redeyef region, and another 1,167,000 is also ready to be loaded. be loaded in the Oum Larayes region since March 10, 2022.
These two sites are paralyzed by sit-ins carried out by supposedly unemployed workers, without the authorities intervening to try to put an end to the strike and guarantee the resumption of the transport of this ore which, before 2011, participated in a good share in overall national exports and, therefore, in reducing the country’s trade balance deficit, which is literally exploding.
This is the sign of bad governance and the inability of the authorities to establish order in the country and in particular in the industrial sites, completely abandoned to the saboteurs. And don’t look elsewhere for the root causes of the economic and financial crisis in Tunisia since 2011!
