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The Renault factory in Oued Tlélat.
The French car manufacturer Renault wants to resume activities at its Oued Tlélat factory, which has been shut down since 2020. A month ago, the general director of Renault Algérie Production affirmed that the restart was coming soon, without giving a date precise. He especially highlighted the major investments launched for work to comply with current legislation.
“Renault has still not received its approval from the services of the Ministry of Industry,” recently declared the general director of Renault Algeria, quoted by the Automobile magazine website. Its factory has been shut down since 2020, after all imports of SKD-CKD assembly kits from the automotive industry were banned.
This factory is a joint venture between Renault, the Madar holding company and the National Investment Fund (FNI), which hold 49%, 34% and 17% respectively.
In this regard, the recent meeting between the Minister of Industry and Pharmaceutical Production and the French Ambassador to Algeria did not go unnoticed. According to a press release, Ali Aoun and Stéphane Romatet reviewed the state of relations in the pharmaceutical industry and production sector, as well as ways to develop and improve them further. Minister Aoun took advantage of this meeting to discuss numerous issues linked to the industrial sector, in particular those linked to the pharmaceutical and automobile market.
For observers, the case of the Renault factory in Oued Tlélat (Oran) was mentioned and could experience new developments in the near future. It is mainly a question of Renault waiting for the green light from the authorities to resume activities and relaunch in the automobile market. Indeed, the latter has been experiencing a certain revival for more than a year with the reopening of the market to foreign automobile manufacturers.
Indeed, in March 2023, Algeria ended the ban on importing new vehicles by granting approvals to three automobile brands, including two from the Franco-Italian-American giant Stellantis. These are Fiat, Opel and the Chinese JAC.
It is above all Fiat which took advantage of this opportunity by importing new vehicles manufactured abroad and at the same time launching work on its factory in Tafraoui, near Oran, inaugurated last December.
According to specialists, the return of Renault will revitalize the automobile market, especially since its factory is designed to produce 90,000 cars.
As a reminder, this factory was inaugurated in 2014 and was to be the starting point for the launch of the mechanical industry in Algeria. The government at the time bet heavily on Renault and two other brands, German and Asian, hoping for possible local integration and growth of SMEs and SMIs around the subcontracting and spare parts sectors.
The resignation of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in April 2019, in the midst of a political crisis, and anti-corruption operations ultimately completed this preferential policy for vehicle assembly. After the arrest and heavy sentences of businessmen operating in the automobile sector, the authorities decided to suspend all activity in 2020 until further notice.
New regulations were adopted, and it was at the beginning of 2023 that the government authorized the reopening of the automobile market by granting authorizations to automobile manufacturers from Italy and China.