Morocco Launches Bid for Massive $300 Million Casablanca Port Shipyard Project

The ANP is looking for "a specialized operator for the concession of the development, equipment, operation and maintenance of the new shipyard at the port of Casablanca," under construction, says the Moroccan public body on its website. Moroccan authorities have already spent $300 million (265 million euros) on this project, according to the ANP, specifying that this shipyard includes "four types of facilities: a dry dock measuring 244 meters by 40 meters; a lifting platform of 150 meters by 28 meters with a capacity of 9,000 tons; a 62-meter by 13-meter quay equipped with a 450-ton gantry crane and 820 linear meters of berthing quays," in addition to 21 hectares of land.

The Casablanca shipyard is the largest of all existing shipyards in Africa. Morocco already has two small shipyards in Casablanca and Agadir, mainly dedicated to repairing fishing boats. The closure of Canary Islands ports to Russian ships in 2022, in application of sanctions against Russia after the invasion of Ukraine, had pushed these vessels to carry out their repairs in Moroccan shipyards. With this new shipyard, Moroccan authorities aim to capture a portion of the ships heading to "saturated shipyards in southern Europe," explained Abdellatif Lhouaoui, spokesperson for the ANP, to Bloomberg.

Industrial sources indicate that the French giant Naval Group is expected to be entrusted with this new Casablanca shipyard, at the expense of its competitors, namely South Korea’s Hyundai, which owns the world’s largest shipyard in Ulsan, and Spain’s Navantia. Shipyards are the third stage of a development strategy that began in 2004 with the construction of the Tanger-Med port, a competitor to Algeciras. In 2024, the Moroccan port experienced growth of 18.8% and handled 10.24 million containers. Morocco wants to replicate this experience next year at Nador West Med, a port under construction off Almeria, as well as in the coastal cities of Safi and Dakhla, in Moroccan Sahara, according to El Confidencial.