Some 3.2 million tonnes of commercial phosphate ready to be transported, but rail transport ensures only 3 trips/day (CPG D-G)

Tunis: Nearly 3.2 million tonnes of commercial phosphate are ready to be transported to the processing plants, but rail transport provides only 3 trips a day, said Director General of the Gafsa Phosphate Company (CPG) Abdelkader Amaidi.Speaking at a hearing session held on Friday by the ARP Finance and Budget Committee to review a loan agreement inked between Tunisia and the Saudi Fund for Development to finance a project to upgrade and develop the posphate railway.The CPG official further pointed to the inability of the rail transport sector to ensure 7 trips a day, thereby resorting to transport by private lorries.As for the raw phosphate between surface mines and laundries, the official said that some TND 63 billion were injected into the acquisition of 18 trucks with a 60-tonne load capacity and 6 hydraulic transporters with a 55m3 capacity.The procedures have already been finilised, pending their entry into operation shortly.The CPG D-G talked about the existence of an investment monitoring pro gramme for the mining transport company, underlining that by virtue of the 2024 Finance Law, some TND 240 billion had been allocated to buy new equipment to modernise the production equipment.The real issue does not lay in the laundries but in the need to renew production equipment, he pointed out.This hearing session was attended by Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy Fatma Thebet Chiboub.Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse