Miami - French aviation company Latécoère announced in a statement the launch of a new plant in Casablanca on Thursday.
Miami – French aviation company Latécoère announced in a statement the launch of a new plant in Casablanca on Thursday.
The new plant will reportedly cost the French company an investment of € 10 million over 5 years and it will be its first in Morocco, according to Usine Nouvelle news website.
The new Casablanca factory will contribute to the recent boom in the aviation industry in Morocco and is expected to employ 300 people to produce avionics bays by 2018.
Groupe Latécoère, an aircraft company based in Toulouse, founded in 1917, historically known for its seaplanes. It is a major supplier of sections of aircraft fuselage and doors and is the second-largest European supplier of onboard electrical wire harnesses and avionics bays with its LATelec subsidiary company.
According to the same source, Latécoère’s investment will be done by LATelec in its entirety and introduced as “world leader in avionics bays and number two in aircraft interconnections systems” with factories in France, Tunisia and Mexico.
The factory will be located “on the outskirts of Casablanca” with production area of nearly 6000 m2 “dedicated to the creation of avionics bays for the Airbus A320 and A350” the statement noted.
The group’s investment in Morocco was first announced by Hamid El Benbrahim Andaloussi, President of the Association of Moroccan Aerospace Industries (GIMAS) last October.
In an interview, the group’s boss, Frédéric Michelland, told the daily La Dépêche “our Tunisian sites are getting saturated, we decided to consider building a new site with 300 people in Morocco.”
The surge of the aviation sector in Morocco has achieved US $605 million in exports this year and registered a growth of 5.1 percent.
Over 110 multinational companies have opened their doors in Morocco, relying on their taxation incentives, attractive subsidies and its proximity to Europe and crossroads from America.
“These leading groups are like aircraft carriers or platforms that generate arrival or reinvestment of many subcontractors. This is our strategy for Morocco by fostering co-location. Here the jobs actually allow them to consolidate or expand those in France by giving competitiveness to OEMs engaged in global competition,” President of GIMAS told Usine Nouvelle.
Other companies to launch plants in Casablanca, namey Bombardier, set to invest US $200 by 2020 and employ 800 people. Stelia Morocco who launched its second factory on Wednesday will invest € 40 million, the same source noted.
The latest international aviation companies to announce the opening of factories in Morocco are the French Thalès, the U.S. group Hexcel and Figeac Aero.
