Renault in Northern Morocco: The emergence of an automobile cluster in Tangier

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Abstract:

The greenfield plant of Renault in Tangier (Morocco) is part of the French carmaker
strategy aiming at the deployment of its Entry range not only for emerging countries, but
also for the European market. The success of the Logan platform, faced to limited
capacities of the Pitesti assembly plant (Romania), has led Renault to search a new
industrial site. Even if the Moroccan market is a low volume one, which could be to be
satisfied by the SOMACA plant, in the suburb of Casablanca, Tangier was chosen as a
place for a all-new assembly plant because the government of Morocco launched a plan
called “Emergence” to reproduce the maquiladoras’ strategy which succeeded in Mexico.
He proposes then very attractive arguments to the French carmaker to locate in the
North of Morocco, unless 30 kilometres of the Spanish territory.
Initially, it was an Alliance project with two plants planned: one for Renault, another
one for Nissan. The consequences of the financial crisis of 2008 led to freeze the
investment of the Japanese carmaker whose production capacities of the British and
Spanish plants were enough for the European automobile market, which started a period
of long stagnation. For Renault, the Tangier greenfield plant remains important because
the sales of the Entry range, marketed under the brand Dacia in Europe, continue to
progress. Morocco becomes a platform of export towards these markets, with the launch
of new models of the range: a monospace (Lodgy) and a small van (Dokker). Their
production started in Morocco in 2012.
The paper will present the results of a research project supported by the CNRS (France)
and the CNRST (Morocco) on this industrial location and the structuring of suppliers'
network. On the basis of a survey of the French car manufacturer and its main suppliers,
it will attempt to characterize the conditions of the emergence of an automobile cluster
in Northern Morocco, by specifying in particular the stakes at the level of the
employment relationship (compensation policy, recruitment, training, skills) and in the
development of a national supply chain.