Mr. Moulay Hafid Elalamy, Minister of Industry, Trade, Investment and the Digital Economy, and Thierry Merlot, Vice President and Director General of Hexcel for Europe, Middle East and Asia, signed, on 19 January 2016, a Memorandum of Understanding regarding the creation by Hexcel of a 10,000 m2 site in Casablanca for the production of machined honeycomb. Construction of this 20 million US dollar project will begin in spring 2016. According to Thierry Merlot, the site will be fully operational my mid-2017 and will have more than 200 employees by 2020. The site will be constructed on the industrial park of the Midparc Free Zone, next to the Mohammed V International Airport of Casablanca, and close to the direct customers of Hexcel such as Safran (Aircelle), Airbus (STELIA) and Bombardier. “The establishment of Hexcel in Morocco was strongly motivated by the proximity of our customers already settled in the country and by the desire to integrate with the aeronautical ecosystem in the Midparc Free Zone at Casablanca Nouasser Airport. The presence of a qualified local workforce trained by the Moroccan Aerospace Institute (IMA) nearby was also a key element in our choice”, said Thierry Merlot. For his part, Mr. Elalamy said he was “proud to include among the world's aeronautics leaders established in Morocco such a renowned American company”, adding that it “once more demonstrates the trust placed in Morocco as a destination attracting world-class companies, and becoming more and more competitive as an aeronautics industry base”. Mr. Elalamy further added that the Hexcel project in Casablanca is an “opportunity for aeronautics as it will accompany its current increase in strength, strongly supported by the ecosystem dynamics, and will stimulate further development of the local supply chain”. To meet the tremendous growth potential of the aerospace market, Hexcel has in recent years expanded the production capacity of its existing facilities in France and the United States, and continues to support the growth of composites in aerospace applications. The Casablanca site is part of an investment program already initiated by the Hexcel Group to diversify and secure its global supply chain. Honeycombs are intended for manufacturing parts for aircraft structures, nacelles and helicopter blades in particular. This production unit will help win new business and strengthen Hexcel partnerships with customers in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and North America. Hexcel Corporation is a leading advanced composites company. It develops, manufactures and markets lightweight, high-performance structural materials, including carbon fibres, reinforcements, prepregs, honeycomb, matrix systems, adhesives and composite structures, used in commercial aerospace, space and defence and industrial applications such as wind turbine blades.