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Join on Telegram Rabat – The Moroccan Society of Automotive Construction (SOMACA) plant in Casablanca has launched an extension project to increase its car production to 160,000 vehicles per year by 2022.
King Mohammed VI received Minister of Industry Moulay Hafid Elalamy and CEO of Renault Group Carlos Ghosn on Thursday at the Royal Palace in Marrakech.
During the meeting, Ghosn and Elalamy informed the King of the extension project to the Renault plant to double its production capacity by 2022.
On Thursday, Ghosn shared a post on his Linkedin, saying that he is currently visiting “our teams and facilities in Tangier and Casablanca. In 2005, we were making 10 000 cars and employed 1600 people in Morocco.”
Renault’s CEO added, “In 2018, over 400 000 Renault and Dacia vehicles will come out of our two plants. Groupe Renault counts more than 11 000 employees in the country and over 40 suppliers and partners chose to follow us, creating 50 000 jobs locally.”
Expressing satisfaction over the company’s achievements, Ghosen asserted, “This is the end of the beginning. We’ve built a strong, sustainable presence in North Africa. For the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, the continent is our next frontier.”
Morocco has become an auto hub, surpassing South Africa as the African leader in vehicle production numbers.
In 2017, Morocco produced 345,000 passenger vehicles to South Africa’s 331,000.
Morocco has become a major supplier for European auto plants, “including Ford Motor Co.’s F 0.22% high-tech plant in Valencia, Spain, which imports car seats, interiors, wiring and other components from Morocco,” wrote the Wall Street Journal.
SOMACA’s extension project will help the Renault group increase its production capacity in Morocco to 500,000 vehicles per year, including 340,000 produced at the Tangier plant, under the Industrial Acceleration Program.
SOMACA exported its first “Made in Morocco” vehicle in 2007.
The SOMACA extension is part of Morocco’s automotive sector development to achieve a production capacity of 1 million vehicles by 2025, all manufacturers combined, with a projected turnover of MAD 100 billion yearly, according to Maghreb Arab Press (MAP).
SOMACA’s factory began making the first Renault cars in Morocco in 1966. The Renault factory in Casablanca has manufactures the company’s models since 1966 and Dacia models since 2005, including Logan and Sandero cars. In July 2015, the Casablanca factory celebrated the production of its 500,000th vehicle.
A key operator in Morocco, Renault has more than 40 percent of the market share in the region with two assembly plants, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Morocco has ambitions to attract foreign investments into its automotive sector through a five-year corporate tax exemption and a 25-year exemption if most production is exported.
