Tanger Med port breaks into top 20 world container ports

PARIS – Morocco’s Tanger Med port broke into the Top 20 world container ports after achieving record figures in 2023, according to the French firm Alphaliner.

Tanger Med achieved one of the best growths in 2023, with a 13.4% increase in container volumes compared to 2022.

The Moroccan port’s traffic has more than doubled in the in the past five years, becoming a serious competitor for the ports of Long Beach (California, United States), Laem Chabang (Thailand) and Kaohsiung (Taiwan), reported French newspaper Le Monde.

“The results for the start of the year still give cause for optimism,” it said.

The Moroccan port has benefitted from the re-routing of ships’ journeys due to months of Houthi attacks in the Red Sea in opposition to Israel's war in Gaza that have disrupted global shipping.

“An increase of 10% in the overall tonnage handled is expected in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same period of 2023,” Rachid Houari, deputy general director of the port authority, told the French daily, adding that this progression was slightly higher than that which the port usually experiences.

“Tanger Med seems to be a step ahead of its competitors,” said Peter Sand, chief analyst at the Norwegian firm Xeneta.

Jérôme de Ricqlès, maritime expert with the French start-up Upply, said that the port complex was outperforming and profiting in the current context.

Najib Cherfaoui, maritime specialist, the competitiveness of the port of Tangier Med was due not only to its position on the Strait of Gibraltar and its industrial rear base of 1,300 companies, but also on a cheap local workforce compared to Algeciras port in Spain.

Tanger Med, which is working almost at full capacity, is considering a major expansion.

The Moroccan State company in charge of the development of the Tangier Med Port Complex (TMPC), already has the backing of the World Bank to set up an extension project which should make a leap in the dimensions of the port.

The World Bank has informed in an official communiqué that it intends to allocate a sum of 714 million euros to various contributors.

The International Finance Cooperation (IFC) will cover a large part of the investment with a loan of €100 million. To this must be added an amount of 255 million from commercial credits that will benefit from the coverage of the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) with the support of the NSHOE, a World Bank tool that "protects against losses arising from the default of a sovereign debt."