[Special Topic] Report on African Cement Market and the Development of Chinese Enterprises in Africa

1. Analysis

of the basic situation of Africa (1) Geographical environment

The African continent covers an area of about 30.2 million square kilometers, accounting for 20.4% of the world's total land area. It is the second largest continent in the world. The population of Africa exceeds 1.4 billion, accounting for about one sixth of the world's total population. Geographically, the African continent is divided into 60 countries and regions, including North Africa, East Africa, South Africa, West Africa and Central Africa. North Africa is mainly composed of Egypt, Algeria and other countries; East Africa is composed of Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania and other countries; West Africa is mainly composed of Nigeria, Niger and other countries; Central Africa is mainly composed of Congo and other countries; South Africa is mainly composed of South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique and other countries.

Figure 1: Geographical location

of the African continent Source: Cement Big Data (https://data.ccement.com/)

(2) Economic environment

The African continent is the least developed region in the global economy. Overall, it is relatively backward, with GDP of about 2.8 trillion US dollars in 2022, accounting for about 2.8% of the world's total, and per capita GDP of about 2000 US dollars, far below the global level of more than 10000 US dollars. Since 2013, Africa's GDP growth rate has been between 2% and 5%, slightly higher than global growth rate as a whole. Affected by the new coronavirus epidemic in 2020, Africa's economy has experienced a rare-1.8% growth rate. In 2021, Africa's economy recovered strongly, reaching 4.8% in that year, which is the highest growth rate in recent years. In 2022, Africa's economy has maintained a strong resilience in the turbulence. The growth rate was 3.7%, higher than that of the world as a whole. The African Development Bank predicts that Africa's economy will maintain a good momentum of recovery in 2023, with an expected annual growth rate of 3.9%, 0.2 percentage points faster than in 2022.

Figure 2: Africa's GDP growth rate is slightly higher than that of the world

Source: Cement Big Data (https://data.ccement.com/)