Global Arab Network | Morocco auto industry gears up for business with UK

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Morocco auto industry gears up for business with UK

Global Arab Network - David Morgan

Friday, 25 June 2010 16:47

Moroccan-British relations have made significant headway in recent years but they are still gathering significant momentum. This was the positive message delivered in London by the Managing Director of Maroc Export, Saad Benabdallah when addressing the recent Morocco-British Trade Day in London.

Today, the official said, some 200 Moroccan companies export to the UK; on the other hand, 80 UK firms are operating in Morocco and there exists 150 trading partners.

In addition, the UK was the 4th largest investor in the country and the 4th largest provider of tourists.

Morocco was seeking to boost its exports generally and was targeting the UK as a privileged partner and market open to doing business.

A new business model
In the respect, it was adopting a new business model which would allow UK firms to do direct business with Moroccan producers without having to rely on brokers and intermediaries, the Maroc Export MD stated.

It was anticipated that this new method of one-to-one business contacts would increase efficiency and reduce the costs.

The challenge was to increase knowledge and raise awareness among the British business community of the advantages for sourcing their produce in Morocco; for example, UK imports perishable food produce from as far afield as Latin America and might find it more advantageous to import more of its produce from Morocco whose proximity to Europe was far closer.

Mr Larbi Belarbi, President of the Moroccan Association of Automotive Trade & Industry (AMICA), explained the growth of the country’s automobile industry over the last few years.

Morocco was rapidly becoming a platform of the automotive industry and was looking towards exporting to the UK.

Some 80% of the investment in the car industry in Morocco came from Europe, the official said. The opening of the Renault plant in the area of Tanger Med’s industrial zone was an important step forward and had boosted the development of skilled human resources so that engineering expertise in the car sector was now flourishing among the Moroccan workforce.

Belarbi said that by 2015 Morocco would be able to produce some 500 thousand cars.

Julianne Furman, from the US-Canadian company Polydesign Systems, shared her experiences of working in the Moroccan car industry with conference delegates.

Producing car interior parts in Morocco for clients such as Land Rover and Ford, Ms Furman said her company did 80% of its business with the UK, until the downturn of 2008-2009. Recently, there had been a pick up and as of 2010 the UK represented 45% of the company’s turnover.

She identified some key factors contributing towards the company’s success which were relevant for trading with Morocco: these included the consistent ability to meet delivery deadlines; the use of English language when communicating with UK customers had been vital; finally, she mentioned the reduced operating costs that resulted from operating in a free zone in Morocco.

She urged UK firms to look to Morocco not just to source products, but stressed that Morocco was in need of UK expertise to help it develop the textiles related products for the motor industry.

The Morocco-British Trade Day was held at the Intercontinental Hotel in London on 21 June. It was organised by the Moroccan Embassy in London, Maroc Export and the Arab-British Chamber of Commerce.

Around 200 people took part in the conference which organises hope will become an annual event.

The conference brought together business representatives from the two countries to explore new partnership opportunities in some high growth sectors in Morocco - textiles & leather, agribusiness & fisheries products and the automotive industry.

A high level delegation from the Kingdom of Morocco was headed by the country’s Minister of Foreign Trade H E Abdellatiff Mazouz, who delivered a keynote address outlining the major new openings for boosting trade and business partnerships with the country.

Global Arab Network

A full report of the conference will appear in the fortnightly bulletin of ABCC

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