A country located on North Africa’s Mediterranean coast, Algeria shipped US$37.9 billion worth of goods around the globe in 2021. That estimated dollar amount reflects a 7.6% increase compared to $35.2 billion for 2017.

Year over year, the overall value of Algerian exported products accelerated by 68.4% compared to $22.5 billion during 2020.

Algeria’s top 5 most valuable exported products in 2021 are petroleum gases, crude oil, refined petroleum oils, nitrogenous fertilizers, and ammonia. Combined, that quintet of major products represents 93.8% of the overall value of Algerian exports. Such a high percentage shows Algeria’s highly concentrated portfolio of exports.

Algeria’s Major Trading Partners

Based on the latest available data from 2017, 81.7% of products exported from Algeria were bought by importers in: Italy (16% of its global total), France (12.6%), Spain (11.7%), United States of America (9.9%), Brazil (6%), Netherlands (5.4%), Turkey (5.2%), United Kingdom (4.6%), Portugal (2.7%), Belgium (2.6%), South Korea (2.5%) and India (also 2.5%).

From a continental perspective, 58.2% of Algeria’s exports by value were delivered to European countries while 17.1% were sold to importers in Asia. Algeria shipped another 11.8% worth of goods to North America.

Smaller percentages went to Latin America (7.2%) excluding Mexico but including the Caribbean, Africa (5.3%) then Oceania (0.5%) mostly Australia.

Given Algeria’s population of 44.5 million people, its total $37.9 billion in 2021 exports translates to roughly $850 for every resident in the northern African country. That dollar metric outpaces the average $500 per capita one year earlier during 2020.

Algeria’s Top 10 Exports

The following export product groups represent the highest dollar value in Algerian global shipments during 2021. Also shown is the percentage share each export category represents in terms of overall exports from Algeria.

1. Mineral fuels including oil: US$33.4 billion (88.3% of total exports)
2. Fertilizers: $1.4 billion (3.6%)
3. Inorganic chemicals: $937.2 million (2.5%)
4. Iron, steel: $901.3 million (2.4%)
5. Salt, sulphur, stone, cement: $323.3 million (0.9%)
6. Sugar, sugar confectionery: $181.9 million (0.5%)
7. Fruits, nuts: $142.5 million (0.4%)
8. Machinery including computers: $77.1 million (0.2%)
9. Organic chemicals: $59.9 million (0.2%)
10. Fish: $41.6 million (0.1%)

Algeria’s top 10 exports accounted for 99% of the overall value of its global shipments.

The metals iron and steel represent the fastest grower among the top 10 export categories, up by 1,573% from 2020 to 2021.

In second place for improving export sales was inorganic chemicals: via a 137.8% increase.

Algeria’s shipments under the salt, sulphur, stone and cement product category posted the third-fastest gain in value, up by 120.9%.

The lone decliner among Algeria’s top 10 export categories was sugar including sugar confectionery, weighed down by a -27.6% year-over-year drop.

From the more granular four-digit Harmonized Tariff System (HTS) code level, petroleum gases represent Algeria’s most valuable exported product at 38.5% of the country’s total. In second place was crude oil (31.3%) trailed by refined petroleum oils (18.3%), nitrogenous fertilizers (3.6%), ammonia (2%) then exported Algerian semi-finished products made from iron or non-alloy steel (1%).

Products Creating Best Algeria’s Trade Surpluses

Algeria posted an overall $2.5 billion surplus for all products traded during 2021, reversing a -$12.2 billion deficit one year earlier in 2020.

The following types of Algerian product shipments represent positive net exports or a trade balance surplus. Investopedia defines net exports as the value of a country’s total exports minus the value of its total imports.

In a nutshell, net exports represent the amount by which foreign spending on a home country’s goods or services exceeds or lags the home country’s spending on foreign goods or services..

1. Mineral fuels including oil: US$32.9 billion (Up by 68.4% since 2020)
2. Fertilizers: $1.3 billion (Up by 61.3%)
3. Inorganic chemicals: $796.3 million (Up by 223.1%)
4. Salt, sulphur, stone, cement: $216.2 million (Up by 412.4%)
5. Iron, steel: $149.5 million (Reversing a -$1.1 billion deficit)
6. Cork, articles of cork: $12.4 million (Up by 55.9%)
7. Raw hides, skins not furskins, leather: $9.5 million (Up by 36.4%)
8. Lead: $7.7 million (Reversing a -$248,000 deficit)
9. Wool: $3.3 million (Up by 1105.5%)
10. Fish: $1.1 million (Reversing a -$5.6 million deficit)

Algeria has positive net exports in the international trade of petroleum gases and petroleum oils. In turn, these cashflows indicate Algeria’s strong competitive advantages under the mineral fuels including oil product category.

Products Causing Largest Algeria’s Trade Deficits

Below are exports from Algeria that result in negative net exports or product trade balance deficits. These negative net exports reveal product categories where foreign spending on home country Algeria’s goods trail Algerian importer spending on foreign products.

1. Machinery including computers: -US$4.3 billion (Down by -3.3% since 2020)
2. Cereals: -$3.4 billion (Up by 25.7%)
3. Electrical machinery, equipment: -$2.5 billion (Up by 7.8%)
4. Plastics, plastic articles: -$2 billion (Up by 14.3%)
5. Vehicles: -$1.8 billion (Down by -5%)
6. Pharmaceuticals: -$1.7 billion (Up by 3.4%)
7. Dairy, eggs, honey: -$1.3 billion (Up by 3.5%)
8. Animal/vegetable fats, oils, waxes: -$1.1 billion (Up by 63%)
9. Articles of iron or steel: -$1.1 billion (Down by -17.1%)
10. Optical, technical, medical apparatus: -$915.3 million (Up by 16.2%)

As technology continues to grow increasingly important to the global economy, Algeria maintains highly negative net exports and therefore deep international trade deficits under the machinery including computers category.

Algerian Export Companies

Not one Algerian corporation ranks among Forbes Global 2000.

Wikipedia lists exports-related companies from Algeria. Selected examples are shown below.

• Asmidal (chemicals)
• Cevital (food, glass, home appliances)
• Hamoud Boualem (soft drinks)
• Naftal (oil equipment, services)
• Saidal (pharmaceuticals)
• Sonatrach (oil, gas)

 

In macroeconomic terms, Algeria’s total exported goods represent 7% of its overall Gross Domestic Product for 2021 ($538.4 billion valued in Purchasing Power Parity US dollars). That 7% for exports to overall GDP in PPP for 2021 compares to 4.1% for 2020. Those percentages suggest a relatively increasing reliance on products sold on international markets for Algeria’s total economic performance, albeit based on a short timeframe.

Another key indicator of a country’s economic performance is its unemployment rate. Algeria’s unemployment rate averaged 13.373% for 2021, down from 14.652% one year earlier according to International Monetary Fund statistics.

Algeria’s capital city is Algiers.

See also South Africa’s Top 10 Exports, Kenya’s Top 10 Exports, Ghana’s Top 10 Exports, Mozambique’s Top 10 Exports and Egypt’s Top 10 Exports

Research Sources:
Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook Africa: Algeria. Accessed on August 3, 2022

FlagPictures.org, Flag of Algeria. Accessed on August 3, 2022

Forbes Global 2000 rankings, The World’s Biggest Public Companies. Accessed on August 3, 2022

International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Database (GDP based on Purchasing Power Parity)

. Accessed on August 3, 2022

International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on August 3, 2022

Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on August 3, 2022

Wikipedia, Algeria. Accessed on August 3, 2022

Wikipedia, Gross domestic product. Accessed on August 3, 2022

Wikipedia, List of Companies of Algeria. Accessed on August 3, 2022

Wikipedia, Purchasing power parity. Accessed on August 3, 2022

World’s Capital Cities, Capital Facts for Algiers, Algeria. Accessed on August 3, 2022