Steel Strip Wheels Ltd today announced that the board of directors of the company has approved the incorporation of a wholly owned subsidiary for setting up a wheel manufacturing facility at Melloussa Jouamaa Free Zone, in Morccco.
The proposed plant, which will manufacture wheel rims for passenger cars and multi utility vehicles, will have an initial capacity of 2.5 million units per year. The total cost envisaged in the first phase will be Euro 28.64 million (about Rs186 crore), the company said in a release today.
In the second phase, the company plans to double production capacity at the Morocco site to 5 million wheel rims per year.
The facility has a ready market and offers scope for further expansion across markets in the region and nearby, the company said in its release.
”The plant is proposed to be located about 13 km from Renault-Nissan car manufacturing facility in Meloussa and 25 km from the Tangier sea port. It will also be very close to European markets of France, Spain and Italy, which together account for annual sales of 4.2 million cars,” the company said in its release.
Renault-Nissan has a very strong and continuously growing business relationship with the company and they have invited SWIL to Morocco as a single source supplier for exclusive platform of steel wheel rims for its local manufacturing facility. A significant portion of the steel production will be taken over by Renault-Nissan and the company will use the remaining to cater to European markets, the release said.