Business
MOROCCO CANCELS TENDER FOR OPERATOR OF $260M CASABLANCA SHIPYARD
Morocco has cancelled the bidding process to select a private operator for its $260 million Casablanca shipyard, ending a competition that had attract...
By Patience
The decision follows a shift in the strategic direction of the project, with Morocco placing greater emphasis on strengthening its domestic maritime industry and national control of the facility.
INTERNATIONAL COMPANIES WERE IN THE FINAL STAGE
The cancelled tender was designed to select an experienced private operator to develop, equip, operate and maintain the shipyard under a 30-year concession.
Three groups remained in the final stage before the process was cancelled. They included a consortium involving Moroccan construction company Somagec, South Korea’s HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and Turkey’s Kuzey Star Shipyard.
Another finalist brought together Morocco’s Radi Holding, Spain’s Marina Meridional and China’s Ningbo Xinle Shipbuilding Group, while Italy’s San Giorgio del Porto also remained in the competition.
ANP CANCELS CONCESSION PROCESS
Morocco’s National Ports Agency (ANP) cancelled the concession process after its board reviewed the evaluation results and adopted what were described as new strategic orientations.
Sources cited in the report said the cancellation was not related to the quality of the bids or the companies that reached the final stage. They instead linked the decision to considerations including national sovereignty.
The new direction is expected to support Morocco’s domestic maritime-industrial ecosystem and its longer-term ambition of developing a strong and competitive national merchant fleet.
$260M SHIPYARD REMAINS WITHOUT AN OPERATOR
The Casablanca shipyard represents an investment of about 2.6 billion Moroccan dirhams, equivalent to roughly $260 million.
Despite the scale of the investment, the facility is not yet operational. It includes a large dry dock and ship-lifting infrastructure designed to handle commercial, military and fishing vessels.
The facility is intended to give Morocco greater capacity to carry out major vessel repairs domestically rather than sending ships to facilities abroad.
MOROCCO SEEKS STRONGER DOMESTIC MARITIME CAPACITY
The cancellation changes the direction of a project that had initially been opened to international private-sector expertise.
The future operating model has not yet been fully set out, but the new approach places the shipyard within Morocco’s broader effort to strengthen domestic industrial capabilities and develop its maritime sector.