Integration of Morocco in the global automotive value chains

Abstract

The establishment of Somaca at the end of the 1950s was the first milestone of the Moroccan automotive industry. Since then, this industry has gone through several stages of its development under the leadership of public policies. Morocco has been able to take advantage of the wave of globalization of the automotive industry since the 1990s when automotive firms disintegrated and production became fragmented within global value chains. In this context, by focusing on a new generation of sectoral strategies, which favored among others, the automotive industry, Morocco has been able to attract the establishment of two major global manufacturers and equipment suppliers. As a result, the automotive industry is currently the leading exporter and the most dynamic component of the entire manufacturing sector. The objective of this article is to examine the integration of Morocco in the global automotive value chains with reference to a benchmark of countries whose level of development of this industry is more or less similar to the case of Morocco. The methodology adopted is based on trade in value added using the Tiva data base of the Organization for Cooperation and Development (OECD), which allows the calculation and analysis of several indicators related to this integration. At the end of the results obtained, it seems that the Moroccan automotive industry is well integrated into the global automotive value chains, nevertheless, it is still necessary for this industry to position itself more in the high value-added chains and conduct upgrades with local operators.