The chemical company ALKIMIA has just published its business indicators for the six months ended June 30, 2023. These show that the company’s revenues decreased by 25% to 61.6 million dinars, compared to 82.7 million dinars at the end of June 2022.
Production amounted to 12,920 tons of sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP; Na5P3O10), compared with 20,990 tons in the first half of 2022. This dropping production is due to a shortage of phosphoric acid, which caused plants to shut down, and lowed demand for STPP.
“This situation of unstable phosphoric acid supply, which our company has been suffering from for more than eight years, has led most of our major customers to abandon STPP and replace it with other cheaper and more stable substitutes,” the company said.
Although the prices of raw materials, especially phosphoric acid and sodium carbonate, fell during the first half of the year, the level reached is still quite high and production costs are still high, “making it difficult to win back our customers, who are still hesitant because they do not know whether the fall will be permanent or not.”
As for the soluble crystallized MAP production unit, which came on stream on June 1, 2021, it produced only 1,746 tons in the first half of 2023, out of a nominal capacity of 25,000 tons per year, due to the punitive pricing policy applied by Groupe Chimique Tunisien for the supply of ammonia and phosphoric acid.
According to the company, the prices charged by Groupe Chimique Tunisien make the MAPc produced by Société Chimique ALKIMIA uncompetitive. For this reason, the soluble MAP unit was shut down for more than five (5) months in the first half of 2023.
Furthermore, ALKIMIA underlines that the implementation of the first stage of the company’s restructuring plan has started following the decision of the company’s Extraordinary General Meeting to increase the company’s capital by 20 million dinars.
Subscriptions and payment of the first quarter of this increase have been made by the main shareholders.
He went on to explain that the delay in completing the capital increase was due to the lengthy administrative procedures required by Groupe Chimique Tunisien to complete its participation in the capital increase and thus complete the transaction.
