Renault will double production at its Casablanca plant to 160,000 cars annually by 2022, the state news agency MAP said.
in Automotive News Europe, by Ahmed Eljechtimi | Reuters, 26-10-2018
The production target was revealed by Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn at a meeting with King Mohammed VI in Marrakesh, the agency said.
Renault builds Logan and Sandero models at the plant.
The production increase at the SOMACA plant in Casablanca will help Renault to build 500,000 cars annually in Morocco, including 340,000 from its larger Tangier plant.
French rival automaker PSA Group said last month that it would start production next year at its site near the coastal city of Kenitra with a target of 200,000 vehicles annually by 2020.
The government has said that it plans to increase to 1 million the number of cars made in Morocco and to boost the automotive sector’s revenue to 200 million dirhams ($30 billion) annually by 2025.
It also wants to raise the local sourcing rate to 80 percent by 2020 from an estimated 50 percent.
The automotive sector was Morocco’s largest industrial exporting sector last year, with exports worth 70 billion dirhams.
Up to September 2018, the sector topped Morocco’s exports with a rise of 15 percent to 48.81 billion dirhams compared with the same period last year.