Algerian plastics and rubber industry picking up by leaps and bounds
With a growth rate of 4.5 % recorded in the past few years, the Algerian plastics industry is one of the fastest growing sectors of the Algerian industry, and one of the most important ones.
- Its growth is driven manifold: by huge governmental projects and infrastructural investments (hydraulics, building and construction, energy, agriculture, gas tubes for Sonelgaz …), as well as by industrial sub-contracting and the increasing demand for packaging materials.
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It consists of some 1.000 enterprises, among them subsidiaries of heavyweights such as Sonatrach, Enip, Iap, Enpc, but mostly of small and medium sized private enterprises. - Around 40% of them are active in injection, 20 % in extrusion, the rest in the fast-growing packaging and plasticulture sectors. The workforce stands at around 20,000.
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With an annual consumption of 1 million tons, half of which being imported from Asia and Europe, the Algerian plastics market has an enormous potential. The per capita consumption stands between 8 to 10 kg. -
Between 2005 and 2007, 370.000 tons of diverse plastics products had been imported, worth US$ 600 million. Nowadays, Algeria’s demand is estimated at 800.000 tons per year, for all applications.