There is excitement in the Tangier free zone, the first opened by Morocco to attract car manufacturers to the country at the end of the 90s – since then, two others have opened. 1 p.m. is shift change time in these companies, all specialized in the automotive industry. The 60,000 employees of “TFZ”, Tanger Free Zone, generally work in three shifts, 24 hours a day, six days a week. Dozens of vans, in which employees are transported by their employer to or from their homes, attempt to make your way through the maze of alleys and roundabouts.
This is where Plastic Omnium, the world leader in plastic tanks and bumpers, set up its fuel tank factory in 2010, an activity called “fuel systems” because it includes the production of tanks and plastic tubing, but also the assembly of pumps and valves.
In this small 5,200 m2 factory, the smell of hot plastic and the sound of the blowers – these enormous machines which give their shape to tanks and tubes from a black plastic bag – grip the visitor. The machines produce one part per minute, which are then cooled to guarantee good resistance, their lifespan being modeled on that of a car. Each model has its own machine: Dacia Sandero on one side, and Peugeot 208 on the other. On the assembly lines, young workers and technicians, women and men, assemble seals and pumps and check the conformity and tightness of the parts. There are only 126 employees for a turnover of 40 million euros in 2022.
The Tangier factory is one of 38 spread across all continents for this activity alone. It produces 500,000 units each year (out of 17 million for the group) ready to be installed on thermal models manufactured by Stellantis (Peugeot 208) in Kenitra, 200 km to the south, and by Renault (Dacia Sandero, Logan, and soon Jogger, Renault Express) in Casablanca and Tangier. A more promising activity in Morocco than in Europe. In France, the Laval factory closed in 2016, while that of Compiègne will stop production. Not far away, in Lachelle in Oise, a giant hydrogen tank factory for trucks and buses is due to take over at the end of 2024 and ultimately produce 80,000 hydrogen tanks per year. Other European sites will have to be converted.
“The market for tank vehicles will gradually decrease,” recognizes Laurent Favre, general manager of Plastic Omnium. In 2023, 72.2 million thermal cars were produced in the world and according to forecasts, this will be 60.7 million in 2028. We asked ourselves whether we should keep this activity, find a partner…”. But Plastic Omnium is now seeing record order intake. “We achieve 2.5 billion euros in turnover in this activity and we have 3 billion euros in orders,” underlines the manager. Our share in this market is expected to increase from 23% today to 30% in 2028. The volumes are significant, the margins are good with no investments required.
Annual production of fuel systems is expected to increase from 17 million units today to 18 million in 2028 within the group. Because if Europe, America and China are in the process of switching to electric, thermal energy has not said its last word elsewhere. “Sales will increase in Asia, Africa, South America, Turkey, which will compensate for the decline in Europe, North America and China,” explains Laurent Favre. And to specify: “we think that we have reached a plateau today in Europe and that we will remain at this level of sales for a certain time”, summarizes Laurent Favre. As a result, Plastic Omnium intends to become less European over the next five years, and invest in Asia and America.
In Morocco, Plastic Omnium is also banking on its other historic activity, which is not threatened by the rise of electricity: bumpers, the production of which has gradually extended to the assembly of the entire front face. cars. By the way, this activity is called “smart outdoor systems”. Installed opposite the large Stellantis factory in Kenitra – whose production must be doubled at the end of 2025 – the Plastic Omnium factory produces and assembles the front and rear bumpers for Stellantis in real time, as well as the tailgates of the 150,000 Peugeots. 208 which will be assembled in Morocco this year. The factory also produces all plastic walls (doors, front, rear, fenders) for license-free electric vehicles from Citroën, Fiat and Opel: The AMI, the Topolino and the Rocks-e. “We know three hours in advance what we are going to have to produce,” explains Jean-François Robert, the boss of the 33,000m2 factory also located in an automobile free zone.
To meet the expectations of manufacturer customers and increase its share of the value chain, Plastic Omnium is banking on increasingly advanced integration of components in its own factories. The idea is to take responsibility for assembling more components. It is for this reason in particular that the French company has diversified into lighting. PO thus bought the lighting activity of the Indian Varroc last year and that of the German AMLS Osram. In the Varroc basket, a brand new factory located in Tangier with its thousand employees, reduced to 800 since. Because this takeover did not only offer good surprises to Plastic Omnium. “After operational losses of more than 10%, we reached operational balance in June,” recalls Laurent Favre. The turnover of the activity will decline until a strong recovery I hope in mid-2025”. Among its clients in Morocco: Renault and Stellantis but also the Volkswagen group.
Plastic Omnium wants to keep all its irons in the fire. Because it wants to count on the margins generated by its activities linked to tanks and bumpers to invest in its new businesses, and in particular hydrogen. A way to manage the difficult and costly ecological transition. The Frenchman should soon lift the veil on the name of the American manufacturer with which he has established a hydrogen partnership: General Motors.