Morocco’s World Cup 2030 Ambitions Strain Construction Sector to Breaking Point

Various shortages, saturation of construction equipment capacities, cost overruns, tight deadlines... The construction and public works (BTP) sector is facing enormous difficulties due to the World Cup projects: sports infrastructure, maritime, rail and road transport projects, energy and water projects, as well as urban redevelopment and social infrastructure. The entire kingdom is a construction site. "In 2025 alone, the Ministries of Transport and Equipment have budgeted 90 billion dirhams for infrastructure projects," says an informed source at Médias24. According to an operator in the BTP sector, all the construction sites are a priority. "In short, everything must be delivered before 2029," she adds. A tight deadline. Enough to overheat the BTP sector. "It’s a real problem," even says a government source contacted by the same media.

Labor shortage. For a few months now, the BTP sector has been facing a growing shortage of skilled labor. The large national and international companies established in Morocco have indeed massively recruited the best skills, to the point of putting SMEs in difficulty. This massive recruitment has led to an inflation of human resource costs. Thus, the wages of ironworkers, concrete finishers and welders have increased considerably. "In an SME, a welder is generally paid between 5,000 and 6,000 dirhams per month. Today, the same welder can be poached for 13,000 or 14,000 dirhams, and we can’t find any more," illustrates a professional. Today, the large companies in the sector are poaching the best profiles in the country to cope with the ongoing construction sites, and it is not enough.

It is also difficult to recruit profiles such as project manager or site manager. This year, a large multinational company in the area wishing to recruit nearly 500 graduate engineer or equivalent profiles was only able to find about a hundred, according to a source. In addition to the labor shortage and the inflation of remuneration, there is a saturation of the capacities of construction equipment. "Whether it’s cranes, equipment or construction machinery, we are at the limit of saturation. Orders for new equipment are slow, and only China is currently able to meet our needs," explains a source.

Another difficulty: cost overruns. "Financing operations have been validated for the purchase of equipment that costs four times, even ten times, its normal price in order to have it available in very short deadlines," says a banking source. It also appears that some projects have been underestimated. "This is a recurring problem with public procurement that the National Federation of BTP has often pointed out," says an operator in the sector. As a result, some construction sites will cost more than expected.