A Chinese company has won a rail construction project in Morocco after it beat a bidding French consortium by a large price gap, according to local press reports.

The Moroccan National Railways Office (ONCF) awarded the project for rail construction in the Western Atlantic port of Casablanca as part of the Kenitra-Marrakesh high-speed rail project to China Overseas Engineering Corporation (Covec), the Arabic language daily Sabah Aghadir and other newspapers said, quoting the official statement.

Covec submitted a bid with a value of 1.34 billion Moroccan dirhams ($135 million) while the French consortium NGE Contracting/Guintoli made a bid of MAD1.72 billion ($173.7 million), the report said, adding that the Chinese firm’s offer was even below the original project cost estimate of MAD1.44 billion ($145.5 million).

Covec is now the fourth Chinese company involved in the civil engineering phase of the high-speed line in the Kenitra-Marrakech project.

Previous contracts on dedicated sections of that project were awarded to other major Chinese firms, including CRCC, China Railway Engineering, and Shandong Hi-Speed Engineering-Construction.

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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