EBRD Lends €7.5 Mln to Tuyauto Gestamp Morocco

The European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) is supporting Moroccan automotive sector with a €7.5 million loan to Tuyauto Gestamp Morocco, a greenfield joint venture producer of metal automotive parts owned by Gestamp Automocion (Spain) and Tuyauto (Morocco).

The funds will finance the first phase of Tuyauto Gestamp Morocco’s operations in the welding and the assembly of metal frames to supply the new Peugeot – Citroen plant in Morocco. This project also supports the Moroccan government’s efforts to increase local integration in the automotive sector to 60 per cent by 2020.

Tuyauto Gestamp Morocco is the Bank’s fourth project this year in the fast growing and strategic Moroccan automotive sector after Faurecia, Varroc Lighting Systems and Novares Morocco and the first one involving a Moroccan sponsor.

Tuyauto is engaged in hot stamping, exhaust systems business and heat shields.

In Morocco, the car industry has yielded results beyond all expectations and breaking all national export records. It has posted far better results in exports & revenues than phosphate and agriculture.

Experts say that the development of the automotive industry will help the Moroccan government create 90,000 jobs by 2020 in addition to the 100,000 that already exist.

French automaker Renault operates two vehicle assembly plants in Morocco, in Casablanca and in Tangier, where it already produced its millionth vehicle since opening the factory in 2012.

PSA Group will begin building cars near the Moroccan coastal city of Kenitra in 2019.

Morocco has succeeded in marketing itself as an attractive & highly competitive export base for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The Moroccan government uses the combination of low inflation and low-cost labor, tax incentives, and improved transportation infrastructure as well as economic and political stability to attract automotive companies.