Chinese Battery Makers Eye Morocco as Gateway to US, EU Markets

"Access the American and European markets and circumvent the provisions aimed at excluding their products." This is, according to researcher Kyle Chan of Princeton University, the objective pursued by the major Chinese companies rushing to Morocco. To support his argument, he cites the Inflation Reduction Act, an environmental reform plan adopted by the US Senate in 2022. "It offers tax credits for batteries made from components from countries with which the United States has a free trade agreement, which includes Morocco," explains this specialist in Chinese industrial policy.

Another reason that arouses the interest of major Chinese companies: Morocco has reserves of minerals essential for the manufacture of electric batteries. The China Electronics Corporation engineering company is building the first cobalt sulfate plant in the kingdom in Guemassa, south of Marrakech, whose inauguration is scheduled for 2025. This plant is one of Managem’s flagship projects and will allow the Moroccan mining group to meet the growing demand for critical metals. "Its annual production capacity is estimated at 5,800 tons, the majority of which will be delivered to Renault, Managem also supplying the German group BMW and the Anglo-Swiss trading company Glencore," reports Le Monde.

Managem also plans to inaugurate a copper plant, essential for electric motors and charging stations, in 2025 in Tiznit, in the province of Taroudant. While the reserves of the deposit are estimated at more than 600,000 tons, it is phosphate, of which Morocco owns 70% of the world’s reserves, which should particularly gain in importance, experts say, "as lithium-iron-phosphate batteries become more commonly used in electric vehicles worldwide, as is already the case in China."