Wall Street Journal
Bombardier CEO Says Moroccan Aerospace Plant Necessary
–Bombardier to build new aerospace plant in Morocco–No impact on current jobs at other locations
–Plans to spend US$200 million over eight years
By Caroline Van Hasselt Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
TORONTO (Dow Jones)–Bombardier Inc. (BBD.B.T) has chosen Morocco, a burgeoning low-cost aerospace manufacturing hub near Europe, to build a new aerospace factory, a location that its top executive says is necessary for the ambitious Canadian aircraft maker to stay competitive. Montreal-based Bombardier, the world’s third-largest aircraft maker behind Boeing Co. (BA) and European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co.’s(EAD.FR) Airbus, has been aggressively developing its factories in Canada, where it’s been overhauling plant operations, and abroad, where it recently built a brand-new facility in Queretaro, Mexico. In Morocco, Bombardier intends to spend US$200 million in equipment, buildings and start-up costs over the next eight years, it said in a statement.
“The reality today to be competitive for us and other aerospace manufacturers is that we need to have a good balance between developed economies and developing economies from a cost perspective,” Pierre Beaudoin, chief executive of Bombardier, said in an interview last month. “The balance is very important. But you should not read by this that there’s no space for jobs in Canada and the U.S. On the contrary, there is a certain expertise that we need to keep here.”
Morocco had made Bombardier’s short list because of its proximity to European markets and the number of aerospace suppliers already there, Beaudoin said.
The aeronautics sector in Morocco currently employs about 8,000 people, according to the Moroccan Aerospace Industries Association. It’s concentrated in the Casablanca region, near the industrial park at the Nouaceur airport. Low-cost labor and shipping costs as well as the government’s commitment there to developing the sector has attracted some 100 aerospace companies to the country.
The exact site location will be announced a later date, Bombardier said in a statement Wednesday.
The new plant is scheduled to start manufacturing in 2013 and details on the component types to be manufactured will be finalized in the coming months, it said. By 2020, the facility is expected to employ 850 workers. There will be no impact on its current workforce levels at its other facilities, Bombardier said.
Bombardier Aerospace employs about 30,300 people at facilities in Canada, the U.S., Mexico and Northern Ireland. About half of its workforce is based in Montreal and Mirabel, Que.
-By Caroline Van Hasselt; Dow Jones Newswires; 416-306-2023
