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The juicy Algerian market is drastically shrinking for French companies since the fall of the Bouteflika regime.
Formerly a major economic partner of Algeria, France sees its companies losing markets due to clan rifts at the highest point of Algerian power which provoke a chaotic redistribution of the rentier system and international alliances.
The election of President Tebboune, on December 12, 2019, which was greeted by Emmanuel Macron with the hope of restoring privileged links with Algeria, has absolutely nothing to solve this deterioration of trade between the two countries. The new head of state has proved incapable of quickly asserting himself against the military institution, the real holder of power in Algeria. We are witnessing the programmed destruction of the most prosperous companies for lack of a real economic recovery strategy
It is estimated that nearly 450 French companies and entrepreneurs are established in Algeria, employing around 40,000 people and generating more than 100,000 indirect jobs. France is the leading non-hydrocarbon investor, particularly in the transport, automobile, agrifood, banking, pharmaceuticals and hydrocarbons sectors. But this situation inherited from the Bouteflika era is radically changing
Total and Suez on the blacklist
The French energy giant, Total, was producing up to 32,000 barrels of oil per day at the time of Bouteflika. Since 2019, Total has seen all of its strategic projects blocked. Sonatrach Total Entreprise Polymères (STEP), a joint company between Total and Sonatrach, was created in January 2019 for the construction of a new polypropylene production unit in Arzew, near Oran. The STEP was to build a new plant which will have an annual production capacity of 550,000 tonnes of polypropylene per year. The project also includes a propane dehydrogenation unit with an annual capacity of 650,000 tonnes of propylene. Total had conducted tough negotiations since 2017-2018 to achieve this ambitious and very promising petrochemical project. In the aftermath of Bouteflika’s fall,the new Algerian authorities have urged Sonatrach to block this project. All the authorizations granted to the French groups were stopped, because of the support of France to the reg.
The other French giant present in Algeria, the Suez group, has also seen its activities significantly reduced. The new Algerian regime has quite simply decided not to renew the contract with the French group Suez, in charge of water management. The contract will end in August of this year 2021 and the Algerian regime felt that it was not in Algeria’s interest to renew it. The company based in Paris (France) has been managing drinking water in Algiers since 2005. It is a huge loss for Suez because if it is a market of more than 105 million euros.
Finally, in October 2020, RATP lost management of the famous Algiers metro after more than eight years of activity.
The French’s ultimate attempt to restore confidence, the plan of French Prime Minister Jean Castex to go to Algeria on Saturday with around thirty French bosses was canceled at the last moment!
