On January 10, 2024, the Algiers regime had loudly announced the formal ban on transshipment through Moroccan ports of any goods intended for Algeria. This hostile measure, by which the Algiers regime hoped to undermine, ever so slightly, the success of the Tanger Med port, had no impact on maritime traffic in the Moroccan port. “All shipowners maintained the Tanger Med stopover, ignoring the directives of the Algerian military junta», Tells us a port source.
Ironically, the veto opposed to transit in Moroccan ports ultimately turned against the interests of the Algerian consumer, who must pay the price of a hateful regime. “There is a whole battery of hostile measures against Morocco which is deployed by Algeria. But the government does not measure the negative impact that these measures could have on the economy and Algerian citizens.“, regrets Abdelaziz Mantrach, president of the Moroccan Professional Association of Shipping Agents, Ship Consignors and Charter Brokers of Morocco (APRAM), also vice-president of the Moroccan Association of Exporters (Asmex).
Costly deviations
To circumvent the ban imposed by the ruling junta, Algerian importers were forced to extend the route of the goods: after the stopover at the Tanger Med port, they are transported to a European port, notably those of Marseille, in France, or from Valencia, in Spain, before finally being landed in Algeria.
«This deviation leads to significant additional costs due to the lengthening of the journey, making imported products more expensive.», Says Abdelaziz Mantrach. As a result, while it sought to harm the activity of the Tangier Med port, the leading container port in the Mediterranean, the Algiers regime only increased the cost of imports and, in turn, undermined the power of purchase of the Algerians.
Read also: How Algeria is trying, in vain, to slow down the phenomenal success of the Tanger Med port
Better still, the Moroccan port has seen an increase in container traffic passing through its terminals, thanks to the disruptions caused by attacks by Houthi rebels in the Red Sea. Indeed, instead of going through the Suez Canal, shipping company boats linking Asia and Europe now favor the alternative route, bypassing Africa via the Cape of Good Hope.
«The choice is naturally made to the Tanger Med port to unload cargo with unrivaled quality of service. Small boats then take over to reload the containers from Tangier and ensure their distribution to Mediterranean ports, particularly in the east.“, explains Abdelaziz Mantrach, specifying that in this batch of new cargoes transiting through the Tanger Med port, “there are goods destined for Algeria».
Incapable of imposing its diktats on large shipowners, the Algiers regime therefore agreed that containers destined for Algeria continue to be transhipped at the Tanger Med port, but on condition that they are not directly transported. from Morocco. And what does it matter if the logistical acrobatics imagined to achieve this objective involve additional costs and delays: the military-political apparatus has been paying dearly for its irrational hatred of Morocco for fifty years.
