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Rabat – Canadian aerospace giant Bombardier is selling its plant in Morocco and wing factory in Belfast.
The announcement came as the company decided to create a new division of the company, Bombardier Aviation, and focus more on private jets and trains, according to BNN Bloomberg.
Bombardier Aviation is set to bring together “all aerospace assets into a single, streamlined and fully integrated business.”
The company acknowledged that its factories in Belfast and Morocco “have seen a significant increase in work from other global customers in recent years.”
“We are recognised as a global leader in aerostructures, with unique end-to-end capabilities – through design and development, testing and manufacture, to aftermarket support.”
The company’s plant in Morocco has at least 400 employees, while 3,600 people work in the Belfast factory.
The news comes only three months after news that Bombardier started expanding its plant in Casablanca’s Midparc economic free zone.
The company pledged to invest $200 million in Morocco by upgrading its industrial plants to offer about 850 direct job opportunities by 2020.
Bombardier is one of several key aeronautics companies operating in Morocco, which is now depending on international firms to grow the industry.
Boeing also has a joint venture with France’s Safran in Casablanca to build aerospace parts, such as wire bundles and harnesses.
In 2018, Morocco’s foreign exchange office announced that the Moroccan aviation industry earned more than MAD 9.78 billion ($1 billion) in the first 11 months of 2017, compared to MAD 8.42 billion ($870 million) in 2016, an increase of 16 percent.
Morocco hopes the industry could curb unemployment and improve the economy.
Several reports spoke about the importance of the industry in Morocco, including Oxford Business Group.
The group forecasted a flourishing future in Morocco’s economy, thanks to aeronautics and the automotive sector.
The report said that Morocco’s plan to promote economic development through investment “has witnessed success, in particular in the automotive and aeronautics sectors.”
