Algeria went from importing cement to shipping around 10 million tonnes of cement and clinker a year. The first phase of this story was building factories. The second phase is harder: selling a low-value, heavy product across the sea at a profit, under rising carbon costs and growing competition. This is the full picture.
1. From importer to exporter
For years, Algeria’s construction boom depended on imported cement. Housing programmes, roads and urban expansion outran domestic production. The state responded with new lines and plants. Public group GICA expanded, and private and foreign operators opened large plants in Biskra, M’Sila, Oum El Bouaghi and Béchar.
Capacity is now about 41–42 million tonnes a year. Domestic consumption stood at around 23 million tonnes in 2024, with 2026 estimates between 20 and 30 million. The surplus has changed the industry’s purpose: it is no longer mainly about supplying the home market, but about finding customers abroad. sphericalinsights
2. How big is the export business?
The growth has been fast. Combined cement and clinker exports rose from under $60 million in 2019 to $747 million in 2023, with clinker alone close to $438 million, which placed Algeria second behind Vietnam in clinker exports. Annual volume is now about 10 million tonnes. sphericalinsights
The main exporters are:
- GICA: 6 million tonnes of cement and clinker in 2023, worth DZD 24 billion, with a goal of 10 million. Its Chlef plant alone sent about 1.9 million tonnes of clinker to Europe in 2025. cemnetalgerie360
- Holcim El-Djazaïr: about 9.5 Mt of capacity and roughly 35% of sector exports. sphericalinsights
- Specialists: Biskria Ciment exports white cement to markets as far as the Americas.
Revenue figures are less certain than volumes. GICA’s 2023 numbers imply roughly $30 a tonne, Holcim’s imply about $45, and the national export value implies more. Be careful with any single price per tonne.
3. The cost advantage: where it comes from
Fuel is the largest cost of making clinker. A kiln needs roughly 3.2–3.5 MMBtu per tonne. At European prices of $12–15/MMBtu, that is about $40–52 of thermal energy per tonne. At the reported domestic gas tariff of $0.20–0.50/MMBtu, the same heat costs about $1.40. The gap is about $38–51 a tonne.
Other inputs add to the picture. Limestone comes from captive quarries at $3–4/t. Electricity adds $3.50–4.50/t for clinker and up to $6.50/t for finished cement. Subsidised diesel at about $0.23/L keeps inland trucking to $6–9/t, and port handling adds $2–3/t. On those figures, the total factory-gate cost is $11.90–15.50 for clinker and $18.40–25.00 for bagged cement, before freight.
Two warnings apply. These costs exclude capital charges, taxes and maintenance, so real costs are higher. And the gas “discount” is an implicit subsidy. At export-market gas values, the foregone revenue is around $27–40 per tonne of clinker, which is a real economic cost to the state, even if it does not appear on a plant’s ledger.
4. Ports decide the margin
Cement is heavy and cheap per tonne, so a few dollars of handling cost can erase profit. Logistics therefore matter as much as the kilns.
Djen Djen is the clearest example. It has berths and storage built for bulk clinker, with depths of about 12–17 metres, vessels of up to roughly 55,000 tonnes, a buffer store of about 100,000 tonnes, and loading rates around 16,000 tonnes a day. A 50,000-tonne ship takes a little over three days to load at that rate, assuming no interruption. Any gap in trucking or stockpile adds demurrage costs. echoroukonline
Annaba, Béjaïa, Skikda, Oran and Ténès have also handled shipments. Ténès, for example, sent 15,000 tonnes to Europe in September 2026, which shows both the progress and how small some cargoes still are. Government meetings with exporters in September 2026 set a goal of more destinations in Africa, Asia, the Americas and the Caribbean. algerie360
5. Clinker versus cement
Clinker is the intermediate product, and cement is the finished product made by grinding clinker with gypsum and additives. The two have different economics.
- Clinker ships in bulk, needs no packaging, and suits buyers that own grinding plants. This is the natural product for West Africa and for Europe.
- Cement captures more value in Algeria and fetches more in specialised markets, but costs more to bag, store and ship.
- White cement is a high-value niche. Algeria has already shipped it to Guatemala (22,000 tonnes). globalcement
The sensible strategy allocates each product to the market where its transport cost and price work best, instead of choosing one.
6. The markets
Mediterranean and Europe. Shipments reach France, Spain, Italy, Portugal and others in under two days of sailing. Proximity is a real advantage over Turkish, Asian or Latin American competitors, which face longer routes.
Americas. Clinker and white cement have reached Latin America and the Caribbean, including a 41,000-tonne clinker order for the Dominican Republic and Haiti. These are opportunistic cargoes rather than a settled market. elnuevodiario
West Africa. Demand is large and many countries run grinding plants that need clinker. Algeria has talked about installing clinker grinders in Africa to export excess capacity, which would move part of the value chain closer to customers. dzair-tube
The Sahel overland. This market looks attractive but is hard to serve. Distances are long, roads and border procedures are difficult, and political relations with some Sahel governments have been strained since 2025. A factory near a border does not guarantee a lower delivered price. Rail links toward In Guezzam and Niger are an idea, not a finished route.
7. A southern plant facing the Sahel
Your third article raised a practical idea: build cement capacity in southern Algeria, where the Saoura plant at Béchar already shows it can be done. A Tamanrasset site, for example, could start at about 1.5 Mt a year and expand toward 3 Mt, serving local construction and possibly Niger if transport links develop.
The idea has merit, but only after specific checks:
- A geological survey of local limestone.
- Reliable power, fuel and water.
- A decision between a fully integrated plant and a cheaper grinding station fed with clinker from the north. The second is the lower-risk first step.
- A demand estimate that does not depend on political goodwill from neighbouring states.
The plan should follow the rock and the economics, not a desire for a big headline capacity.
8. The carbon problem
This is the part that could change the whole export model. The EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism entered its definitive phase on 1 January 2026, and cement and clinker are covered. Importers must account for embedded emissions and buy CBAM certificates.
Three points matter for Algeria:
- Gas does not rescue it. More than half of a kiln’s CO₂ comes from the limestone itself, not the fuel. Switching from coal to gas helps only at the margin. Clinker typically carries something like 0.8–0.9 tonnes of CO₂ per tonne.
- Algeria gets no carbon-price credit, because it has no domestic carbon price. That is the opposite of a “lower carbon penalty” advantage.
- The charge phases in. As I understand the schedule, the obligation is small at first (about 2.5% of embedded emissions in 2026) and rises each year toward 100% in the mid-2030s as EU free allocations are removed. At an EU carbon price of €70–80 per tonne, the full charge on clinker would be roughly €55–70 per tonne. That is as large as the clinker price itself.
The headline cost advantage over European mills is therefore a window that narrows over the next decade, especially into the EU market. Verify the phase-in percentages against current EU texts before printing numbers.
9. What Algeria should do
- Publish reliable data. Settle volumes, revenues and per-tonne prices, and report exports by product and destination.
- Measure emissions now. Plant-level, verified emissions data is the entry ticket to CBAM. Efficiency upgrades, alternative fuels and blended cements (lower clinker content) reduce the future bill.
- Diversify away from Europe as the carbon charge rises: West Africa, the Americas and other regions with no carbon border tax.
- Move up the value chain. Sell more finished and specialty cement and fewer bulk tonnes of clinker where it pays.
- Use clinker-and-grinding partnerships in Africa so Algeria supplies inputs to local cement industries.
- Invest in ports and rail where bottlenecks cost the most per tonne, and track loading rate and vessel turnaround as key performance indicators.
- Be realistic about the Sahel. Build the southern plant only if geology, power and transport pass independent tests.
10. Verdict
The cement boom is real. Algeria turned an import bill into an export line worth several hundred million dollars a year and now ranks near the top globally in clinker. Cheap gas, captive limestone, short sailing distances to Europe and growing port capacity all helped.
But the advantage rests on a subsidy that has an economic cost, thin and uncertain margins per tonne, and a European carbon charge that is designed to erase exactly this kind of cost edge. The industry’s second phase will be won by whoever treats cement as a logistics-and-carbon business rather than a kiln business.
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