Four Years of Cement Credits, Four Shutdowns: What Did the FX Financing Deliver?

More than $170 million across four years

More than $170 million in cement-related credits over four years, including over $160 million attributed to one company through May 2025, was compared with repeated plant shutdowns. The financing-output disconnect is a legitimate performance question, not proof that credits caused or funded the shutdowns.

The retained ledger lists $34.7 million for 2022, $45,586,990 for 2023, about $46 million for 2024 and $17.6 million for the first five months of 2025—a visible subtotal near $143.9 million. The claim of more than $160 million for the company therefore depends on the omitted 2021 value or additional rows, while the $170 million headline appears broader still. Both denominators must be published before the totals are repeated.

Four shutdowns change the meaning of the import bill

Cement is heavy, costly to transport and central to construction. Domestic production can save foreign exchange, but plants depend on power, quarry access, maintenance, labor and security. A shutdown may raise prices even when import financing or prior investment was legitimate.

Imports beside idle capacity

The chronology records labour closure in 2021, armed interruption in 2022, a four-month popular shutdown in 2024, an internal sit-in in December 2024 and a distribution crisis in March 2025. It also cites market prices of LYD 70–85 per quintal against an official LYD 16, plus reports of 680,000 tonnes of lost production and 75,000 tonnes in silos. Each claim requires its dated primary record; none is proved by the FX ledger alone.

An industrial-policy ledger, not a slogan

Industrial support should be conditional on measurable capacity, output, maintenance and environmental compliance. Connected-party exposure and market dominance deserve review, while operational disruptions should be classified by cause rather than folded into one accusation.

Publish credit purpose and execution by year, verified imported items, installed capacity, monthly production, shutdown dates and causes, inventory and domestic prices. Reconcile the company and sector totals so the headline denominator is unambiguous.

From dollars to tonnes, shutdown days and retail price

A proper performance ledger would put each FX row beside the item financed, installation date and monthly production effect. It would then mark the days lost to each shutdown, the 75,000 tonnes reportedly held in silos and the separate claim that 680,000 tonnes of potential production were lost. Stock, foregone output and financed imports are different measures and should never be added.

The price gap—LYD 16 official versus LYD 70–85 in the parallel market—also needs dates, product specification and distribution channel. It can reflect shortage and allocation failure, but allegations involving forged documents or sales in children’s names require prosecution, company or court records and a right of reply before they become findings.