Tunisia is not a new nearshore experiment. It has been assembling European harnesses for fifty years.
We supply connectors, terminals and seals into Tunisian harness plants at the shortage, allocation and obsolete end of the market, with export and customs documentation prepared in-house.
Send a part numberWhy Tunisia matters to us
Draexlmaier opened its first plant outside Germany at Sousse in 1974, which makes Tunisia the starting point of that company's international manufacturing rather than a recent cost decision. It now runs four production units across three Tunisian cities, at Sousse, Mahdia and Siliana, with sites recorded at El Jem, Siliana, Sousse and Zaouiet Sousse and around 8,000 employees. It has also opened a design office at the Sousse site, where engineers work on on-board wiring and electrical systems.
Leoni is one of the largest employers in the country outright, with more than 20,000 people across four production sites. Between those two groups alone, Tunisia carries a harness workforce comparable to entire national industries elsewhere in Europe. Across North Africa as a whole, the wiring harness industry employs more than one hundred thousand people directly.
Tunisia and Morocco together function as the nearshore manufacturing base for European vehicle programmes, close enough for the Mediterranean crossing to be a manageable leg and covered by preferential trade access into the EU. The presence of a design office alongside the plants is the part that distinguishes Tunisia from a pure assembly location: some of the specification work happens in the same country as the build, which changes what a substitution conversation looks like when a connector goes obsolete.
Harness Code is an independent distributor based in Sofia, working the shortage and obsolete end of the connectivity market: allocated terminal series, connectors quoted at forty weeks, and housings discontinued while the programme is still running. We are not an authorised or franchised reseller, which is exactly why we can go looking outside a channel that has already declined the request. Counterfeit risk is handled through verified sourcing channels, date and lot-code checks, and original packaging where it exists. We do not issue a certificate of conformance as a guarantee of authenticity.
The plants this market runs on
Public harness manufacturing sites in Tunisia. We supply the connectors, terminals and seals that go into those builds, at the shortage and obsolete end of the market.
Draexlmaier
Four production units across Sousse, Mahdia and Siliana, with sites recorded at El Jem, Siliana, Sousse and Zaouiet Sousse. Around 8,000 employees.
Leoni
One of the largest employers in Tunisia, with more than 20,000 people across four production sites.
Draexlmaier Sousse design office
Electronic and mechatronic engineers developing on-board wiring and electrical systems in the same country as the assembly.
Sousse, since 1974
The first Draexlmaier plant outside Germany, and the start of the North African harness industry as European manufacturers know it.
The Sahel coast
Sousse, Mahdia and El Jem form a dense corridor. Plant density in a small area means one allocated part is felt across several programmes at once.
Plants listed are public manufacturing sites in Tunisia. Named customer references appear only with written permission.
A Mediterranean crossing, an association agreement, and paperwork we prepare ourselves.
Tunisia is outside the European Union, so the consignment is a formal export with customs documentation. The EU and Tunisia have an association agreement with preferential tariff treatment, and an EUR.1 movement certificate applies where the goods qualify by origin. Air freight into Tunis is the realistic route for a shortage part. We prepare the documentation in-house and confirm what applies to your consignment before it ships. French-language support is available on request.
Line down? Crisis sourcing →Common questions on supplying Tunisia
01Do you ship to Tunisia?
Yes. Tunisia is outside the EU, so the consignment moves as a formal export with full customs documentation, which we prepare in-house. Air freight into Tunis is the normal route when a part is holding up a build.
02Will I pay import duty?
It depends on the origin of the goods. The EU and Tunisia have an association agreement with preferential tariff treatment, and an EUR.1 movement certificate applies where the parts qualify by origin. Where they do not, standard duty applies, and we tell you which case you are in before shipping.
03Can you supply a connector that has gone end-of-life?
Yes. Obsolete and end-of-life connectivity is one of the two things we specialise in. Plants running long-lived European programmes hit this constantly, because the connector's catalogue life ends well before the programme does.
04Which connector brands do you supply?
The core families are TE Connectivity, Aptiv and legacy Delphi, Yazaki, Sumitomo Electric, JST and Molex, and roughly forty further brands are sourced on request. Send the manufacturer and the part number. If your engineering team has already cleared an alternative, tell us that too, because it usually widens the search considerably.
05Do you work in French?
Yes, French-language support is available on request. Most procurement teams run the inquiry in English so the part numbers and date codes stay unambiguous across the export documentation.