After having built the new Casablanca shipyard on behalf of the National Ports Agency (ANP), Somagec is seeking to obtain the concession for the new Casablanca shipyard. Moroccan leader in port and maritime infrastructure, pipes and outfalls, dams and bridges, waste treatment, water and energy, the Sahyoun group has just formed a consortium with the Turkish group Kuzey Star Shipyard to operate the new ship repair yard in Casablanca .
The National Ports Agency (ANP) is looking for a concessionaire for the new Casablanca shipyard. After a first call for tenders declared unsuccessful in December 2019 by the authority and regulation body of the Moroccan port system, the French industrial group specializing in defense shipbuilding, Naval Group, remained alone in the race to win the management of the ship repair yard, after the disqualification of two Italian competitors (group formed by the La Spezia mechanic Jobson Italia-already established in Tangier-/Palumbo) and the renunciation of the Dutch candidate (Damen shipyards). But last year, Naval Group, which was in a consortium with Chantiers et workshops du Maroc (CAM), already operator of the old Casablanca shipyard, withdrew from the negotiations.
For Moroccan professionals in the sector, the ANP has set the bar very high in terms of selection criteria (technical and financial capabilities), which is not without de facto excluding Moroccan operators who believe that the conditions required favor the international operators. Indeed, candidates for the concession of the new Casablanca shipyard must not only have direct experience as an operator of a ship repair or shipbuilding yard but also have operated a significant number of shipyards over the past few years. years. To this first criterion, which accounts for 70% of the final eligibility mark, is added a second clause which requires the candidate to have the capacity to mobilize funding. On this last point, the candidate must justify the financing mobilization operations carried out for the development, equipment, operation and maintenance of infrastructure within the framework of a concession or any other form of public partnership – private sector carried out over the last ten years with a value greater than 10 million euros.
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But today, the new Casablanca shipyard arouses the interest of the South Korean Dae Sun to assemble a tanker there and above all the desire of the Maghreb Civil Engineering Company (Somagec), better known for its expertise in the construction of port and maritime infrastructure, pipes and outfalls, dams and bridges, waste treatment, water and energy, rather than ship repair.
Leader in port and maritime infrastructure in Morocco, the Sahyoun group has to its credit the construction of all ports in the Kingdom. The port of Dakhla Atlantique, development project for the Marchica lagoon in Nador, the Casablanca marina, the seaside resort of Mazagan, the military port of Ksar Sghir, Substantial interventions in the Tanger Med complex, the Tarfaya wind farm …. The company is quite simply involved in the largest construction sites in the kingdom. It was she who also built the new Casablanca shipyard. Except that this time, the Sahyoun family group is seeking to globally exploit this infrastructure. To meet the obligations imposed by the concession specifications, he called on a Turkish ship repair giant with whom he formed a group. This is Kuzey Star Shipyard which claims, on an annual average, the construction of 79 ships and the repair of 112 ships respectively.
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However, alongside the Turkish operator, the Moroccan group led by Roger Sahyoun which should not have difficulty mobilizing financing as it recently demonstrated in the context of the construction of the water highway by anticipating in record time the establishment of specific pre-financing with a consortium of three major Moroccan financial institutions, intends to diversify through rational inclusion in the field of ship repair.
It must be said that the work of cutting up and evacuating the “Livana Ship”, a 109 meter long commercial vessel, flying the Liberian flag, which had been stranded for almost four months off the coast of Marina Smir, in the north of the Kingdom which he had achieved brilliantly must have given him the idea of getting into ship repair. The call for tenders launched last July by the ANP concerning this ship which presented a direct risk to the infrastructure, security, environment and attractiveness of the port, as well as an alteration of the environment port, had allowed Somagec to carry out the operation for 30 million DH.
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Note that the Sahyoun group has been operating in maritime transport for a dozen years. It actually owns two vessels in Equatorial Guinea: a ferry and a tugboat.
Today, the builder of Moroccan ports wants to take its first big steps in the naval industry with its Turkish ally. The new shipyard should position Casablanca in this area. It will allow the city to take advantage of the affluence on the Moroccan coasts and meet the demand for ship repairs. Added to this is an opportunity due to the saturation of supply on the Canary Islands and the potential to capture part of international demand. The shipyard has drydocking facilities which will enable it to accommodate ships of 50,000 tonnes for the refit form (240 meters in length), 400 to 470 boats per year for the strap gantry (450 tonnes) and 6 ships per year, standard 5,000 tonnes, for the lifting platform.
