Germany to ‘sell Algeria arms factory’

Düsseldorf arms company Rheinmetall will shortly sign a contract to produce 980 Fuchs armoured vehicles in Algeria when the facility has been shipped abroad and reassembled, the Handesblatt newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing sources.

The €2.7-billion deal is part of a huge delivery of arms worth €10 billion to the north African country. According to Handeslblatt, Daimler will be exporting SUVS and trucks to Algeria while Thyssen-Krupp will be delivering warships.

According to an annual government report into German arms deals released in June, Algeria was Germany’s biggest market for weapons in 2013. It bought equipment worth €825.7 million including tank parts, SUVs and trucks.

But this deal will be the first time German firms have gone beyond supplying tanks and weapons to authoritarian regimes and sold an entire factory to produce armoured vehicles. Transparency International ranks Algeria 94th out of 177 countries in its Corruption Perceptions Index.

The factory to build the Fuchs vehicles will be built in Ain Smara in north eastern Algeria, Handelsblatt reported. The country has pledged to not sell the vehicles on to other countries.

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