The industrial sector accounted for about 13% of GDP in 2001. Because it lacks power and adequate transportation, Chad is industrially one of the least developed countries in Africa. Cotton processing is the largest activity. Cottonseed oil is processed at Sarh and Moundou. Coton-Tchad, the state-owned company that produces and exports cotton, is the country's main manufacturing concern, and many of its subsidiary operations (including oil and soap) were being privatized in 2002.
Other enterprises include several modern slaughterhouses, a flour mill complex, a sugar refinery, and textile plants. There are also rice and peanut oil mills, a brewery, a soft-drink plant, a soap factory, and a cigarette factory. Factories at N'Djamena also produce bicycles and mopeds, radios, and perfume.
The construction sector was growing in 2002, with investment in roads and schools, among other public works projects. There was interest in building a cement factory in the Mayo Kebbi region in 2002, and plans to produce detergent and establish assembly plants for agricultural equipment. If electrical costs could be reduced, light industry could be further developed.
Oil exploration in Chad began in the 1970s in the northern Lake Chad Basin and the Doba Basin in southern Chad. Chad's full hydrocarbon potential has yet to be fully determined. The Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline, with estimated production at 225,000 barrels per day, was due to be completed in 2004. There were plans in 2002 to build a refinery in N'Djamena, to make Chad self-sufficient in oil products. The development of Chad's petroleum sector is aimed in part at raising electricity output, which is crucial to Chadian industry. Only 2% of households in Chad are supplied with electricity.