Morocco Seeks South Korean Expertise to Rebuild Commercial Fleet

The Minister of Equipment and Water, Nizar Baraka, was thus able to visit the Ulsan facilities and exchange with the company’s executives, including its executive director Lee Sang-Kyun.

The objective of this visit? To draw inspiration from South Korean technologies to relaunch the Moroccan commercial fleet. The government indeed aims to own a hundred ships by 2040, in order to boost foreign trade. A strategy in this direction, developed by an international firm, will be presented soon.

Morocco’s ambition is clear: that the majority of these ships belong to Moroccan companies, public or private. A real challenge when we know that the country’s commercial fleet has dropped from 73 ships in the 1980s to only 16 in 2020. The bankruptcy of several shipping companies, such as Limadet, Comanav and Comarit, explains this dizzying fall.

In addition to the acquisition of ships, Morocco also wishes to develop a local shipbuilding industry and the associated maintenance services, as indicated by a government official.