By taking 19th place in the 2023 edition of the ranking of container ports in the world, established each year by the French firm Alphaliner, Tanger Med achieved one of the best growths in the Top 20, with volumes handled increasing by +13.4% compared to the 2022 financial year. Its traffic having more than doubled in five years, the Moroccan port now rivals those of Long Beach (California, United States), Laem Chabang (Thailand) and Kaohsiung (Taiwan), reports The worldfor who “the results of the start of the year still encourage optimism“.
Recent events in the Red Sea, marked by attacks by Houthi rebels, have led to a reconfiguration of maritime routes. Container ships had to be diverted to the Cape of Good Hope, causing congestion in several ports in the western Mediterranean, including Barcelona, one of the most affected. Tanger Med, the main transshipment hub for goods from China, has been able to take advantage of this situation. Rachid Houari, deputy director general of the port authority, announced to the French daily a 10% increase in the overall tonnage handled in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same period of 2023. An increase “slightly higher than the port usually experiences“.
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Peter Sand, chief analyst at the Norwegian firm Xeneta, assures that this complex “seems to be one step ahead of its competitors“. “Tanger Med outperforms and benefits in the current context», Says, for his part, Jérôme de Ricqlès, maritime expert with the French start-up Upply.
The competitiveness of Tanger Med, which “takes full advantage of its position on the Strait of Gibraltar and its industrial rear base of 1,300 companies”, also relies on local labor that is much less expensive than that of its competitors. Najib Cherfaoui, maritime specialist, emphasizes that the cost of labor in Tanger Med is ten times lower than that in Algeciras, Spain. This represents a valuable opportunity for large global shipowners such as CMA-CGM, MSC and Maersk, which hold shares in the Moroccan port terminals.
The world also recalls that since its inauguration by King Mohammed VI in 2007, Tanger Med has been able to attract the biggest players in the maritime sector. The Danish Maersk, for example, has made the port a key element of its new Gemini alliance with Hapag-Lloyd, planned for 2025. The French CMA-CGM also considers this complex as a strategic asset essential to its future development. As for the Swiss world leader MSC, its acquisition in 2022 of the African port concessions of the Bolloré group now gives it complete freedom to connect West Africa to the Mediterranean.
Any expansion plans coming soon?
Despite the pressure on its facilities, Tanger Med looks to the future with confidence. The port continues to position itself as a leader in the Mediterranean, ready to meet challenges and seize opportunities. This infrastructure, used at 95% of its nominal capacity, an objective reached four years earlier than planned, is therefore considering expansion.
Read also: Maritime transport. How Madrid is investing heavily to enable the port of Algeciras to counter Tanger Med
Plans to improve and increase its operational capacity are all the more justified in the face of increasingly serious competition. “Algeciras, which handled less than 5 million TEUs last year, will receive 1.7 billion euros to develop, the Spanish Minister of Transport announced in February. Ditto for Valencia, which will pocket 1.6 billion euros for a new container terminal. Objective: double their capacities”, points out The world.
In the East, Algeria is agitated by yet another announcement from the port of Cherchell. It remains to be seen whether the project will succeed. And even if it materializes, it will not pose a threat to Tanger Med in the near future, as pointed out by Jérôme de Ricqlès, maritime expert with the French start-up Upply.
