Morocco’s Tanger Med Port Surpasses Spanish Rivals in Container Traffic

Even though the port of Algeciras continues to be the leader in the Mediterranean with 107 million tons transported in 2020, the port of Tanger Med closed the year with 80 million, an 18% increase over the previous year. Thus, the Moroccan port has surpassed all Spanish ports in handled container units with 5.7 million against 5.4 for the port of Valencia and 5.1 for that of Algeciras, according to María del Mar Cerbán, an expert in maritime traffic and vice-rector of the University of Cadiz, quoted by El Pais.

For the president of the Port Authority of Algeciras, Gerardo Landaluce, "even if the flows are analyzed in a north-south perspective, the ports of Algeciras and Tanger Med are complementary and are doomed to cooperate on goods traveling by truck on the Europe-Maghreb axis". In 2020, the port of Tanger Med became, in the midst of the pandemic, the first port in the Mediterranean in transit of goods thanks to the commissioning of Tanger Med II, an extension of the port with a capacity of six million additional containers. "Very few people were betting on this project. But, thanks to the vision of the king, Tangier has gone from the fourth or fifth economic city in the country to the second," says Rachid Houari, the port director.

Tanger Med aims for the Top 20

According to Alberto Camarero, professor of port operations and management at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, several reasons justify the "predictable" progress of the port of Tanger. "First, there is a clear bet by Morocco. Not only in the port, but also in logistics. Secondly, they are more competitive in terms of labor costs," he explains. The Moroccan port was ranked 45th in container traffic among the 500 largest in the world in 2018. In 2020, the Lloyds list of the 100 best ports in the world places it in 35th place, three places behind Algeciras. According to Camarero, these results show that "Tanger Med’s goal is not to be placed ahead of Algeciras, but to be among the top 20 ports in the world".

"Tangier is no longer a threat. It’s a reality. Whether we like it or not," says Alonso Luque, CEO of TTI Algeciras, who argues that Tanger Med and Algeciras are doomed to compete and collaborate at the same time. "The competition has been healthy, traffic has increased in both ports and the emergence of the Moroccan competitor has led to the consolidation of the Strait of Gibraltar," also acknowledged Professor Jesús Gabriel Moreno of the University of Seville.