The city of the Strait is in the phase of becoming a hub for the automotive industry in the Mediterranean region with the start of activity, in a few weeks, of the Renault factory, synonymous with the launch of a new industrial subsidiary with high added value.

The Tangier region has turned for years already towards this promising sector, through the installation of several component manufacturing units in the Tangier Free Zone (TFZ), helped in this by the geographical proximity to Europe and the availability of qualified labour.

But the advent of the French automotive giant undoubtedly constitutes a real qualitative and quantitative leap that will place Tangier among the automotive production hubs on a global scale.

The Renault factory, the cornerstone of a future international automotive platform.

The creation of the Renault factory, which required an investment of 600 million euros over a total area of 300 ha, acts as a cornerstone for a future integrated international automotive platform.

The factory, which will produce its first vehicles in a few weeks according to the established schedule, has a production capacity of some 170 thousand vehicles per year, which will be increased to 400 thousand vehicles per year after the commissioning of the second production line around 2013.

This large industrial unit will generate 6,000 direct jobs and 30,000 indirect jobs, among subcontractors and equipment manufacturers in the medium term, which will give a great boost to the labour market in the region.

The French manufacturer is banking on the Tangier factory to increase its sales in the still under-exploited markets of the Middle East and Africa.

Thus, 90% of the production will be destined for export, and the remaining 10% for the local market.

As soon as the project for the installation of the Renault group in Tangier was made public, the region became the preferred ground for many subcontractors who decided to settle in the region to take advantage of this new dynamic.

Other units, already existing notably at the level of TFZ which counts about sixty companies in this sector, have strengthened their production capacities to meet the rise in demand for automotive components.