The Kenitra industrial zone around the manufacturer PSA will be extended. At the same time, Morocco will host the continent’s first automobile test center.
The automobile is definitely on the rise in Morocco. In quick succession, two announcements confirm the country’s major role in this sector of activity. On the one hand, the creation of an automobile test center in the center of the country, and also the extension to Kenitra of the PSA complex over an additional 96 hectares.
The automotive test center which will open in 2021 in Oued Zem (150 km south-east of Casablanca), is quite simply the first to be established on the African continent. A test center is an essential tool for designing new vehicles, but also for adapting vehicles to regional constraints.
The project is supported in particular by the French group UTAC, specializing in the validation of vehicle compliance with standards, and the German FEV. Two major players in the automotive sector who make no secret of their choice.
The policy pursued by Morocco to make the country a major player in the automobile industry has attracted several manufacturers (Renault, PSA) and their subcontractors, who are all potential customers. “Due to favorable local labor costs, UTAC CERAM will be able to benefit from better competitiveness on certain types of services,” the statement said.
The second information confirms that the development of the automotive sector in Morocco is continuing. 96 additional hectares will in fact be developed in Kenitra to accommodate new subcontractors from the manufacturer PSA.
According to the agreed term “ecosystem”, namely all the activity around a major player, in this case the French car manufacturer, the area currently has 46 companies. It employs more than 5,800 people including 3,500 engineers in 46 companies. The PSA complex achieved a turnover of 850 million euros in 2019.
Nationally, 700,000 vehicles left Moroccan factories in 2019, exceeding the target of 600,000 for 2020. The automobile has become the country’s leading export sector, providing a third of exports for a value of 7 Billions of Euro’s. The sector now employs 180,000 people.
However, threats exist. Linked exclusively to France, the sector is not immune to a relocation in France of the construction of certain vehicles, in a context of the fight against deindustrialisation.
On the other hand, domestic consumption does not follow. Only 110,000 vehicles have been registered in Morocco since the start of the year. A 22% drop blamed on the coronavirus epidemic. The country is still stuck in an export logic that makes it vulnerable to international competition and its choices that it does not control.
