Morocco’s Auto Industry Faces 40% Revenue Drop Amid COVID-19 Crisis

Professionals in the sector had placed so much hope on the year. But in just six months, the coronavirus has wiped out the efforts of several years. Abdelaâziz Aït Ali in his analysis explained that the coronavirus pandemic has caused the shutdown of production in several sectors of the global economy, including the automotive sector. With the Wuhan region becoming the epicenter of the pandemic, many countries have lost a primary supplier in many areas, reports Hespress.

In Europe for example, the number of new car registrations fell by an average of 40% in the first five months of 2020. The Moroccan automotive industry has not been spared due to its close ties with European manufacturers. The report indicates that the sector was already in decline before the coronavirus and its vicissitudes came to weaken it further.

The researcher estimates that the country’s automotive exports could suffer a loss of 33 billion dirhams by the end of the year. But the situation could in a way reposition Morocco at the top of the production chain. Thus, any downward adjustment in export turnover would result in a proportional reduction in imported inputs, the analyst specifies.

Abdelaâziz Aït Ali insists on the need to integrate national investments in the automotive sector, in order to protect the sector against external shocks. And to achieve this, the State has a duty to get more involved in the management of the sector and to make it one of the levers of the Moroccan economy. According to the report, the crisis currently affecting the sector is proof that it must depend less on foreign