PSA Officially Inaugurates its Kenitra Plant
King Mohammed VI chaired, on Thursday in the integrated industrial platform “Atlantic Free Zone”, in the commune of Amer Saflia (province of Kenitra), the inauguration of the new French automaker PSA Peugeot plant worth €557 million. The group’s industrial project in Morocco is based on the creation of a complete automotive ecosystem.
Construction work on the plant, the first PSA Peugeot Citroën industrial complex in Morocco, began in the Kenitra region in 2016. The industrial agreement for this project was signed in June 2015, in Rabat by Carlos Tavares, CEO of PSA Peugeot Citroën, and Moulay Hafid Elalamy.
The factory is planned to release 20,000 units in 2019 before reaching the annual capacity of 90,000 vehicles. By 2020, the plant will be able to produce 100,000 cars but the maximum capacity would be 200,000 cars and motorbikes.
About 80% of PSA Kenitra’s output will be exported to Africa, the Middle East and Turkey with a local sourcing rate of over 60 percent. The plant in Kenitra will thus help the group meet the growth of sales in the region and to make the Middle East & Africa a major pillar of profitable growth for the group.
“We have exceeded €1 billion of local sourcing, which was planned for 2022 and we will reach €2 billion in 2023,” said the office of the Minister of Industry, Investment, Trade, and Digital Economy, Moulay Hafid Elalamy.
One dirham in two received out of industrial exports are generated by the car industry sector, which topped Morocco’s industrial exports in 2018 taking 44.5%.
With 402,000 cars produced in 2018, Morocco overtook South Africa as the continent’s first car manufacturer.
Renault is now producing 12% of its cars globally in its Tangier factory. China’s Byd, is also on its way to launch production of electrical vehicles in the country.
