Automotive exports continued to grow at the end of January 2023, once again making a strong contribution to the balance of trade at the start of this year.
Indeed, according to data recently published by the Foreign Exchange Office, they posted an increase of 44.8% corresponding to +3.09 billion dirhams (MMDH) at the end of January 2023.
From these data, it appears that sales in the automotive sector amounted to 10.00 billion dirhams at the end of January 2023 instead of 6.91 billion dirhams at the same period of 2022.
“This development follows the increase in sales of the main segments of the sector, namely the construction segment (+48.4% or +1.27 billion dirhams), that of cabling (+51% or +1.19 billion dirhams ) and that of the interior of vehicles and seats (+26.6% or +159MDH)”, explained the Foreign Exchange Office in its monthly indicators of foreign trade for the month of January 2023.
Overall, at the end of January 2023, exports of goods reached 32.63 billion dirhams against 31.49 billion dirhams a year earlier, an increase of 3.6% (+1.14 billion dirhams).
As we noted in a previous article, reporting the 10.6% increase in Morocco’s trade deficit at the end of January, this increase concerned the majority of sectors, mainly the automotive sector, that of electronics and electricity and that of textiles and leather, specified the Office in its monthly indicators of foreign trade last January.
By way of comparison, at the end of 2022, exports of goods had increased by 29.4% (+96.70 billion dirhams) amounting to 426.10 billion dirhams against 329.40 billion dirhams a year earlier.
Note that the automotive sector had positioned itself as the second best exporting sector behind phosphates and derivatives.
Indeed, as noted by the Foreign Exchange Office in its monthly foreign trade indicators for 2022, this increase concerned exports from all sectors, headed by phosphates and derivatives, the automotive sector and that of agriculture and agri-food.
According to the figures at the time, sales in the automotive sector amounted to 111.29 billion dirhams at the end of the past year, showing an increase of 33% corresponding to +27.60 billion dirhams.
According to these data, this increase concerned sales in the construction segment (+40%), those in the wiring segment (+28.9%) and, to a lesser extent, those in the vehicle interior and seats segment (+ 3.7%), had commented on the public body in its monthly indicators of foreign trade for 2022.
Alain Bouithy