The warming of diplomatic relations between France and Morocco is good for French companies. Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to Rabat, from October 28 to 30, should ultimately result in nearly 10 billion euros in contracts for French companies, or cross commitments, according to the count put forward by the ‘Elysium.
A second round of commercial agreements was signed this Tuesday, October 29 at the end of the business forum organized between companies from the two countries during the state visit. Enough to further strengthen the position of French groups, already the leading investors in Morocco with more than 8.2 billion euros in direct investment stock in 2022.
18 TGV trainsets for Alstom, a new Safran factory
The big winners? Alstom – which has invested nearly 30 million euros in its Fez factory since 2020 and plans to open a second site in the country – won a call for tenders with the national railway office ( ONCF) Moroccan for the firm supply of 18 new generation Avelia Horizon TGV trainsets. The amount of the contract would be around 750 million to 1 billion euros, depending on maintenance options. Part of the components should be produced in Morocco.
The project to extend the TGV line between Tangier and Marrakech also benefits the railway equipment manufacturer Vossloh, selected to supply 75 million euros of rails and switching systems by 2027. Egis had already been appointed to summer to carry out project management.
Rail is not the only growing sector. In maritime transport, the shipowner CMA CGM will invest 280 million euros with its partner Marsa Maroc to increase the capacities of the Nador West Med container terminal, at the northern tip of Morocco, part of which they will operate for 25 years. quay and 35 hectares of container storage parks.
Safran, which already has eight factories in the country, will build a new maintenance workshop in Casablanca for its Leap engines, with 600 direct jobs at stake. The site, for which the investment has not been specified, should be operational in 2026 and capable of repairing 150 engines per year.
Strategic partnerships in water, energy and satellites
For the rest, the announcements relate to less advanced projects. Among the other contracts signed, TE H2, the joint venture 80% owned by TotalEnergies alongside the Eren group, has for its part completed the first stage of development of its project to build a giant solar and wind farm of 1 gigawatt of capacity in order to produce green hydrogen, with the signing of “a preliminary land reservation contract”, as announced by the TotalEnergies group, which is moving forward on other similar projects in Tunisia.
This step allows the group to start preliminary studies on the project, developed with the Danish financial companies CIP and AP Moller capital. The final objective is to produce from this green hydrogen 200,000 tonnes per year of ammonia intended for export to the European market.
Veolia also signed a strategic partnership to build and operate the second largest seawater desalination plant in the world near Rabat. It should make it possible to supply nearly 9.3 million inhabitants. Same thing for Engie, which hopes to develop with the powerful public group OCP, which exploits Morocco’s enormous phosphate deposit, projects for a desalination plant, green ammonia production and renewable energy production.
A memorandum of understanding has also been validated between Thales Alenia Space and the Moroccan operator Panafsat to provide a geostationary communications satellite capable of offering high-speed internet connectivity in Africa. EDF Renewable is for its part in the running to build the second phase of the Taza wind farm, while Suez is advancing four agreements, two of which concern the management of the waste centers in Kénitra and the construction of that of Oum Azza, close to the capital
Phosphate giant OCP invests in start-up NetZero
In the financial field, an investment fund of 50 million euros will also be set up between Bpifrance and the OCP group to support innovative start-ups and SMEs active in green energies and water production in Africa. Investments also work in the opposite direction. InnovX, once again a subsidiary of the phosphate giant OCP, will take a stake in the biochar production start-up NetZero and invest 7 million euros. The two companies plan to launch a joint venture to develop the biochar market in sub-Saharan Africa.
Other cooperation agreements target the development of an e-fuel production project by MGH Energy in Western Sahara or a research alliance with the Centrale schools group. These trade agreements are in addition to the “exceptional reinforced partnership” signed between France and Morocco. One component, negotiated in the spring by the former president of Engie Gérard Mestrallet, concerns in particular cooperation in the field of energy, which concerns in particular the development of green energies and connectivity between the two countries.
Source: www.usinenouvelle.com
