Morocco Tops Podium of Africa’s Car Producers

Morocco’s automotive sector was the largest in Africa in 2017 with an output of 345,000 cars, surpassing South Africa’s production of 331,000 cars, South African business news outlet, IOL, said.

“Morocco posed a threat to South Africa’s automotive industry because it was about 16km from Europe and focused on that market rather than sub-Saharan Africa,” the outlet stated.

The gap is poised to be further widened as Morocco set the target of producing one million cars by 2025 in keeping with positive results achieved by the sector.

Morocco’s car industry is moving at a faster pace to achieve the goal of 600,000 cars and 100 billion dirhams by 2020, Morocco’s Industry Minister Moulay Hafid El Alami said in March.

In 2017, Morocco’s two leading car factories in Tangier and Kenitra achieved a joint output of 376,000, worth 70 billion dirhams.

Between 2014 and 2017, total jobs created in the automotive sector rose to 83,845.