China’s Citic Dicastal to produce aluminium car wheels in Morocco
26/07/2018 20:13
By Ahmed Eljechtimi
RABAT, July 26 (Reuters) - China's Citic Dicastal will
invest 350 million euros in building two aluminium car wheel
factories in northern Morocco, Morocco's industry, trade and
investments ministry said, joining a string of foreign car
component-makers setting up in the country.
The first factory will be built in the Atlantic Free Zone in
Kenitra and operate from 2019, while the second will be
established later in Tangier Tech city, the two parties agreed.
Citic Dicastal aims to produce 6 million units annually,
most of which will be exported, the ministry said.
Investment incentives in industrial free zones and proximity
to Europe as well as African markets are luring car component
makers to invest in Morocco. French car makers Renault RENA.PA
and Peugeot PSA PEUP.PA set up factories in Tangier and
Kenitra respectively.
The government plans to bring the local sourcing rate of
cars made in Morocco to 80 percent by 2020.
"Through this project, Dicastal expands its international
investments and contributes to Morocco's industrial development
and Moroccan-Chinese trade," Chairman of Citic Dicastal Xu Zuo
said at the signing ceremony.
Last April, South Korea's Hands Corp 143210.KS began
building an aluminium wheel plant in Tangier at a total cost of
4.33 billion dirhams ($472 million), with an annual production
capacity of 8 million units.
The automotive sector was the country's largest industrial
exporting sector last year, with exports worth 70 billion
dirhams. Up to June of this year, the sector led Morocco's
exports with a rise of 19.1 percent to 35.973 billion dirhams
compared to the same period a year earlier.
(Reporting by Ahmed Eljechtimi
Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
((ahmed.eljechtimi@thomsonreuters.com;))