The 5th international “Plast Alger” (www.plastalger.com) plastics and composites trade fair will take place in Algiers / Algeria from 11-13 March 2018. Co-organisers fairtrade (Heidelberg / Germany; www.fairtrade-messe.de) and Messe Düsseldorf (www.messe-duesseldorf.de) have announced that it is the first time the event will be powered by "K", the "world's number one" trade fair for plastics and rubber. Plast Alger will be held concurrently with "Printpack Alger" (www.printpackalger.com).

According to figures from the German engineering federation VDMA (Frankfurt; www.vdma.com), Algeria is heavily investing in the expansion and modernisation of its plastics and packaging industries. Algerian imports of plastics machinery increased by 40.8% from EUR 95.8m in 2015 to EUR 134.9m in 2016. The country's imports of packaging technology increased by 8.9% to EUR 228.2m in 2016. After South Africa, Algeria is the second largest importer of plastics and rubber technology in Africa. Its top supplier countries are China, Italy, Germany, France, Canada, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Austria, Spain and Turkey.

Algeria's annual consumption of raw materials is 1m t, half of which are imported from Europe and Asia, and per capita plastics consumption is 8-10 kg. The imports of plastics in primary forms have increased considerably over the past five years, from USD 1.17 bn in 2012 to USD 1.90 bn in 2016 – a plus of 62.4%.