Morocco plans new port terminal with capacity nearly matching Algeciras’ annual traffic
Algeciras plans to modernize its quays and expand its terminals. Across the strait, Morocco is preparing additional capacity almost equal to a year’s container traffic at the Spanish port.
In 2025, Tanger Med handled 11.1 million twenty-foot equivalent units, according to its annual report. Algeciras handled about 4.7 million. The Moroccan complex thus handles more than twice the volume of its Spanish neighbor.
Morocco is now planning another expansion. Presented to King Mohammed VI on October 28, Tanger Med 3 will have 1,200 meters of quays and add annual capacity of 4.5 million containers, according to the Royal Cabinet statement. The announced public investment amounts to 8 billion dirhams, or about 730 million euros.
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The concession for the future terminal has already been signed with Maersk–APM. Operations are scheduled to begin in mid-2031, Tanger Med CEO Mehdi Tazi-Riffi told AFP.
Algeciras aims to expand capacity
On the Spanish shore, the port authority plans capacity of 7.5 million TEUs in 2030, then 9 million in 2035. Its commercial target is to actually handle 6 million TEUs a year by the end of the decade, reports El Estrecho Digital.
Morocco has a different ambition: to eventually raise Tanger Med’s capacity to 20 million containers a year. The goal rests on several projects, including Tanger Med 3, the expansion of the passenger and ro-ro port, and the eastward extension of Tanger Med 2.
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To expand capacity, Algeciras is counting in particular on the extension of TTI at the Isla Verde Exterior quay and the deepening of APM Terminals’ basins. The group set to develop the new Moroccan terminal also operates one of the major terminals of its Spanish competitor.
