With an initial capacity of 170,000 vehicles but expected eventually to reach 400,000 vehicles per year, the Tangiers factory will help Renault keep up with demand for its low-cost Dacia brand and introduce new models, such as the Lodgy minivan. Renault has received tax breaks and customs exemptions from Morocco
A political storm raged in France, where the so-called “delocalization” of manufacturing, particularly in the auto industry, is a hot subject in the run up to a presidential election.
“It isn’t something that is being done to the detriment of France,” chief executive Carlos Ghosn said on French RTL radio. Ghosn said “on the contrary the factory will increase work in France ... in our engineering labs, motor factories, and among our suppliers.”
Former industry minister Christian Estrosi, a member of the President Nicolas Sarkozy’s governing UMP party, accused Renault, in which the French state still holds a 15-percent stake, of selling out French workers. He said “it is dangerous and intolerable for our country that Renault, in which the state is the largest shareholder, practices social dumping in Morocco to manufacture cars destined for Europe and France.”
A leader of France’s far-right National Front called Renault opening the Tangiers factory “a real scandal”.
Alarabiya.net
Friday, 10 February 2012
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