A series of conventions of investments, signed December 11, 2017 at the Royal Palace of Casablanca with car manufacturers French (Photo by FADEL SENNA. AFP)
Morocco, which claims itself as the first automotive manufacturer in the Middle East North Africa region is to strengthen its position with the next installation of the 26 factories of equipment suppliers and a factory for electric cars.
A series of agreements for the investment was signed on Monday with car manufacturers, French for implantation of the 26 factories of sub-contractors automobiles for an amount of more than a billion euros of investment.
The conventions relating to these new sites that operate mainly for the benefit of French groups Renault (PA:RENA) and PSA Peugeot (PA:PEUP) Citroën representing an investment of “$ 1.23 billion euros”, with the key being the creation of “11.568 direct jobs”, announced in a speech by the moroccan minister of Industry, Moulay Hafid Elalamy.
“The fabric of equipment suppliers to the automotive industry is world class,” he congratulated during the signing ceremony organised at the royal palace of Casablanca, in the presence of king Mohammed VI, several ministers, businessmen and moroccan foreign bosses of the automotive industry.
Saturday is also the royal palace of Casablanca and in the presence of the king that the chinese giant BYD (“Build Your Dreams”) has signed an agreement for the installation of a factory of electric cars near Tangiers.
The memorandum of agreement with BYD also plans to construct at the end of three other plants (batteries, electric buses and electric trucks, electric trains). No information has filtered on the amount of planned investments in Morocco, or on the date of commissioning of the sites.
On the other hand, the new investment signed on Monday are “in progress or to be incurred in the coming days,” said to the AFP the president of the moroccan Association for industry and commerce automobile (Amica), Hakim Abdelmoumen. They relate as much to oems, French, Spanish, japanese or americans (aluminum wheels, dashboards, bumpers…), according to the information obtained in Casablanca.
– Top 7 world’ –
The renault brand has signed six agreements with oems within the framework of an “ecosystem, Renault, PSA has signed 13 for the development of the his in the kingdom, according to the information obtained during the signing ceremony.
The oem French Valeo (PA:VLOF) has signed two conventions, and the other five investments will be made in the context of the development of the “ecosystem wiring and connections”.
Morocco leads the past few years, an ambitious strategy of industrialization, in particular to Tangier (north), a city of a million inhabitants as well as a deep water port and a free zone, where they have developed several industrial parks. This dynamic relates especially to the automotive and aerospace industries, while the textile going through a period of crisis.
With these investments, Morocco is approaching its goal of”integrating the top 7 global automotive industry in the coming years”, said the moroccan agency MAP.
– Leading exporter –
The automotive sector became the first exporter of the country, in front of the phosphates, the mainstay of the moroccan economy, the value of the export, according to information released Monday by the moroccan authorities.
“The automotive industry has reached a turnover to the export of 70 billion dirhams (€6.5 billion), and aims for $ 100 billion by 2020,” according to the moroccan minister of Industry, which made the development of”ecosystems” his horse of battle.
Renault has opened in 2012 in Morocco, the Tangier free zone, its largest plant in Africa, with 1.1 billion euros invested, and 7. 000 employees to this day.
PSA, for its part, started the construction of a plant in Kenitra, north of Rabat, where the 90,000 vehicles that must be produced annually from 2019, with an integration rate (that is to say, the parts manufactured on-site) of at least 60%.
