Kingdom of Morocco and the Renault Nissan Alliance Announce the Creation of New Manufacturing Complex

TANGIER – Under the presidency of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, Prime Minister of Morocco, Driss Jettou and President and CEO of Renault and Nissan, Carlos Ghosn today signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the creation of a new industrial complex in the Tangier region of North Morocco. The complex will be constructed to support a manufacturing capacity of 400,000 vehicles a year, with an initial planned capacity of 200,000 from 2010. Planned investments in manufacturing capacity for this project are estimated at €600 million, with a first phase of €350 million.

Creating one of the largest vehicle manufacturing facilities in the Mediterranean, the Kingdom of Morocco and the Renault Nissan Alliance have today committed to a feasibility study for setting up an industrial complex, located on a 300-hectare site on the Mediterranean port of Tangier. In addition to the natural geographic advantages of the North Morocco region, the plant would also benefit from the leading-edge logistics infrastructure developed by the Kingdom of Morocco in the North of the country. Planned investments in manufacturing capacity for this project are estimated at €600 million, with a first phase of €350 million. In addition to this amount, a further specific investment of €200 to 400 million will be made according to the variety of vehicles produced.

Managed by Renault, this Alliance facility would extend Renault’s manufacturing system for the production of competitive vehicles derived from the Logan platform and Nissan’s system for the production of new-generation light commercial vehicles. 90% of these vehicles would be exported.

Almost 6,000 direct jobs and 30,000 indirect jobs would be created through this project. With a workforce of this size, the Renault-Nissan Alliance would become one of the principal employers in the Tangier region. Further investment has been committed by the Alliance to train and support the skills and educational development of its local employees.

The Kingdom of Morocco and the Alliance expect to sign a General Agreement by the end of 2007.