Algeria’s plan to cease imports from 2017 to affect Tunisian cement industry

Ibrahim Chbili, Director General of Manufacturing Industry of Tunisia’s Ministry of Industry, has said that the decision made by Algeria to cease importing cement by 2017 and become self-sufficient in its supply is expected to affect the Tunisian cement industry.

At present Algeria buys around 95 per cent of Tunisian cement exports, which reached 1.8Mt in 2015 before registering a drop to 1.2Mt in the first nine months of 2016.  With new capacity coming online, Algeria expects to be self-sufficient in cement supply and possibly export a surplus to Mali, Chad, Niger and Mauritania.