Sentury’s Morocco tyre plant gains overseas investment approval

Qingdao Sentury Tire Co. Ltd. has received the regulatory approval to invest US$296.78 million in the construction of its previously announced Morocco tyre manufacturing project. The “Certificate of Overseas Investment of Enterprises” was issued by the Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Commerce on 5 June 2023 and is valid for two years.

Sentury’s Morocco project will be located in the vicinity of Tangiers at the Tangiers Tech City – the $10 billion Chinese-backed project that aims to employ 100,000 people in total – and will be run by subsidiary business Sentury Tire (Morocco) Company, according to official filings. As you would expect, Sentury Tire (Morocco) Company will focus on “the R&D, production and sales of radial tyres”.

Sentury’s approval for a US$296.78 million investment fits with previous estimates of $300 million. However, local news sources suggest that the scale of the total investment could hit as much as $450 million once subsidies are taken into account. That kind of investment would be comparable with Sentury’s aborted US tyre factory project. Were that to be the case, further questions would be raised about the future of Sentury’s Spain tyre factory project.

The official paperwork explains the rationale for the investment like this: “The increasing demand for orders, and after years of overseas factory operations….the current production capacity of the company’s Qingdao factory and Thailand factory can no longer meet the needs of customers”.

Furthermore, Morocco, is seen as a “bridgehead” into other North African countries, all as part of the national “Belt and Road” initiative.

Following the acquisition of land for the Morocco project earlier this year, the approval of large-scale investment suggests Sentury’s north African new tyre factory project is on course for its goal of starting construction this summer.