PETpla.net Insider 04 / 2015

EDITOUR REPORT 15 PET planet insider Vol. 16 head amounted to US$5886 in 2014. Average life expec- tancy was 70.8 years in 2012. Although the healthcare system is well established, capacities in terms of personnel and materials are inadequate. Most of Algeria (with an area of 85%) is taken up by the Sahara. Behind the densely populated strip bordering the Mediterranean towers the Tell Atlas Mountain range, reaching a height of 2300m in the north east. Mount Tahat, with a height in excess of 2900m and situated in the Ahaggar range, is the highest mountain in Algeria. After decades of a state-directed economy following Algerian independence, the civil war at the end of the 1980s, and a drop in oil prices, the government opted for private enterprise once stability had been restored at the end of the 1990s. The bureau- cratic, corrupt and, in some cases, still uncer- tain internal situation has, however, not generated optimum growth as far as private companies and investments are con- cerned. Based on current figures, the economy is spread over a service segment of around 33%, 54% industry incorpo- rating skilled crafts and trades and 13% agricul- ture. Most of the coun- try’s economic revenue is derived from gas and oil exports. As regards natu- ral gas exports, 95% go to Europe, accounting for around 30% of European consumption. In addi- tion to oil and natural gas Algeria also mines iron, copper, lead and zinc ores as well as mercury and phosphate. Due to political conflicts, the border with Morocco, for example, has been closed since 1994. Civil war scenarios in neighbouring countries such as Libya have led and continue to lead to borders being only partially open or simply not passable at all. Let’s now take a look at Algeria’s drinks indus- try. Algeria’s highest con- sumption per head is in the CSD sector. In 2013 this amount to slightly over 39 litres, closely followed by packaged water at 34 litres. In third position are still drinks at around 16 litres which, at the same time, account for the highest rate of increase with an average of 11.81% up to 2014. 96% of packaged water is available in PET bottles and the rest is made up of glass bottles for pre- mium segments. Still drinks (67%) and CSDs (63%) occupy 2nd and 3rd places respectively. Overall the packaging sec- tors show no particular changes up to the end of 2012 and are broadly-speaking stable in terms of their distribution. As regards juices, PET demonstrates a loss of two percentage points when it comes to aseptic cartons and, in the case of syrup too, the use of PET shows a slight decline in 2012.