Morocco Poised to Enter Electric Vehicle Battery Market with $2 Billion Factory

CNGR Advanced Material and Al Mada want to build an industrial complex in Jorf Lasfar (110 km southwest of Casablanca), near the facilities of the OCP group, the world’s largest exporter of raw phosphate, phosphoric acid and phosphate fertilizers, for an investment of 20 billion Moroccan dirhams (about 2 billion dollars). In a statement published on Tuesday, September 19, the two parties specified that the industrial site should start producing its first electric battery components in 2025. These will include LFP cathodes, "precursor active materials" for nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) batteries, and battery component recycling units. Production should be sufficient to equip more than one million electric vehicles per year. It will be mainly exported.

Al Mada, a private pan-African investment fund, is majority owned by King Mohammed VI. The royal holding company is active in about thirty countries. It invests in several sectors, including distribution, banking, real estate, mining and construction, telecommunications, energy and insurance.