A man is silhouetted at a show room of Nissan Motor Co. in Tokyo, Japan, February 12, 2019. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-hoon
ALGIERS (Reuters) – Japan’s second-largest automaker Nissan Motor Co has signed a joint venture agreement with an Algerian private partner to build a car assembly plant at a cost of $160 million, the company said on Wednesday.
The plant, near the western city of Oran, is due to start production in the first half of 2020 with a capacity of 63,500 vehicles per year, Peyman Kargar, Nissan’s senior vice president and chairman of operations in Africa, Middle East and India, said at a signing ceremony in Algiers.
Nissan’s partner, Hasnaoui Group, will hold a majority stake in the project, which is expected to create 1,800 jobs.
Algeria has banned car imports as part of an attempt to cut spending due to lower oil and gas earnings, the main source of state finances.
“We want to help diversify our economy,” said Hasnaoui Group’s owner Sofiane Hasnaoui.
Reporting by Hamid Ould Ahmed; Editing by Kirsten Donovan