The project involves building an annual production line of 5 million compression cast aluminum parts, including automotive chassis spindle products in addition to aluminum rims, which Dicastal has been manufacturing for almost three years. This time Dicastal has decided to enrich its products to be manufactured in Morocco with new technology.
The Covid crisis has not got the better of Chinese investments in Morocco. A 3rd Dicastal factory has just been launched on Wednesday by the Minister of Industry and Trade, Ryad Mezzour, in the Kenitra free zone in the presence of the Chinese ambassador to Morocco. A kick-off was also marked by the signing by videoconference of an investment agreement with the Chinese headquarters of this large structure whose construction kick-off has also just been given.
As the government official explains, this investment is intended for “high-end parts that are also aimed at high-end vehicles”. In addition, the group is developing, as detailed by the Minister, its 3rd factory after “only 3 years of presence in Morocco”. “In the first two factories, it produces 6 million aluminum rims which it exports mainly to the United States”, continues Mr. Mezzour who highlights the production, today, of high-tech parts, chassis, and aluminum motors. These products will be, as he details, “exported mainly to Europe. They will be essential parts in high-end vehicles”. “This project will make it possible to employ 766 Moroccan men and women directly with an investment volume estimated at 2 billion DH”, advances the minister. For his part, the Chinese ambassador to Morocco, Li Changlin, said: “The Sino-Moroccan cooperation project Dicastal Morocco Africa, carried out by the Citic Dicastal group, is the largest of its kind that emerged after the visit in 2016 in China and the establishment of the strategic partnership between the two countries”. “Similarly, it is the largest Chinese investment in Africa,” adds the diplomat who recalls, in turn, the convention of the “Belt and Road” plan signed in January 2000 between the two countries. Better still, the Dicastal plant is, in his view, “the first major project since the signing of this document”.
Production of 5 million pieces per year
In this regard, the group’s vice president, Mei Xinglong, reveals from China that “the project is to build an annual production line of 5 million pieces of compression cast aluminum, in particular, the rocket products for automotive chassis in more aluminum rims than Dicastal has been making for almost three years. This time Dicastal has decided to enrich its products to be manufactured in Morocco with new technology”. And that’s not all! “The project will also serve to supply the European market,” he adds, hoping that this project would contribute to the development of the automotive sector in Morocco.
Creation of 766 new jobs
In addition to this new plant, two others were launched in 2019 and 2020 for the production of six million aluminum rims per year. For the time being, the investment of the Citic Dicastal group in Morocco has reached 350 million Euros, thus creating 1350 jobs. By 2022, the ministry with MedZ is launching the construction of the 3rd factory for the production of aluminum rims for 180 million Euros. Spread over an area of 20,000 m² in a 12-hectare site, this project called “Dika Morroco Castings – DMC” will provide Morocco, in six months from its first plant producing cast aluminum components for power trains and chassis. This project, with a production capacity of 10 million units, will be deployed in two phases and will create 766 new direct jobs. Even better, 90% of the parts will be for export.
