Chinese companies are betting on Morocco as a logistics hub to produce and export electric car batteries to Europe, Africa, and America, leveraging its geographical location, trade agreements, resources, and an existing automotive ecosystem in the Maghreb country

The announcement this week that the Chinese group Gotion High-Tech will open a battery gigafactory in Morocco is the latest in a series of at least six companies from the Asian giant that will set up factories related to this product, supported by the Moroccan government, which aims to make the country a leader in this field

This news comes after a two-year journey of tightening trade relations between both countries, at a time when Morocco's automotive industry produces 700,000 cars annually for Stellantis and Renault, and aims to transition from thermal to electric engines to meet European demand

Morocco is making a very strong bet on the electric vehicle sector," said Hicham Chaoudri, Director of Investment at the Ministry of Investment and Public Policy Evaluation, to EFE, recalling that it is the first non-EU country to export cars to the EU

According to Chaoudri, Morocco aims to move towards electric motor production and has turned to China because they are the world leaders in the sector

In 2016, King Mohamed VI visited Beijing and solidified the bilateral relationship, and in January 2022, the foreign ministers of both countries signed an agreement under the Chinese project 'New Silk Roads' to facilitate the installation of Chinese companies. In April 2023, the Moroccan Minister of Investment, Mouhcin Jazouli, toured China and since then, there has been a trickle of projects with investments of at least 2.45 billion euros in the Maghreb country

The most substantial is the recent announcement by Gotion, which will invest nearly 1.2 billion in its Kenitra factory (north of Rabat), where there is already an automotive ecosystem around the Stellantis plant. A little further north, in the Tanger Tech technology complex (near the Tanger Med mega-port), the company Hunan Zhongke Shinzoom Technology, specializing in electromagnetic equipment and battery anodes, announced last March that it will set up a factory with an investment of 460 million euros and will employ 1,500 people

In the same industrial zone, the BTR New Material group will invest 278 million in another factory to produce 50,000 tons of cathodes per year, as indicated by its CEO, YouYuan Huang, to a Moroccan media outlet in March

The Tanger-Kenitra-Casablanca axis

One of the reasons attracting Chinese investment is Morocco's resources, where materials such as phosphates (it is one of the world's leading producers), manganese, and cobalt used in these batteries are extracted

But the director of Moroccan Investment assures that it's not the main reason. According to Chaoudri, there are five reasons that play a major role, such as the 'economic and political stability of the country' and its infrastructures, citing Tanger Med, its highways, and its high-speed train linking Tangier, Kenitra, and Casablanca. He also mentions the 'young and qualified workforce,' fifty free trade agreements - including with the EU and the US - and that the current automotive industry uses 'wind and solar energy

In addition to the areas of Tangier and Kenitra, Chinese companies plan to establish themselves in Casablanca, the economic capital of Morocco, which has a port seeking to expand its influence. This Thursday, the port authority announced a new freight line, by train and by ship, with the Chinese province of Sichuan

There, the Chinese company CNGR, along with the holding company of the Moroccan royal family, Al Mada, will build an industrial base for ternary precursors, iron phosphate and lithium, and battery recycling to 'meet the growing and strong demand for new energy vehicles in Europe and the United States', according to the Asian company

Also in Casablanca, Zhejiang Hailiang plans to set up a plant with an investment of 264 million euros to manufacture lithium battery sheets and serve its customers in Europe, America, the Middle East, and Africa, Bloomberg reported

Source of the article: eleconomista.es