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Country Information > West Africa > Morocco Agency
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Tanger
MED Port Information [ Port Map ] One of the largest container terminals in the Mediterranean, Tanger Med container terminal is able to host the largest next generation container vessels. The city's new port is set to become one of the largest in the world - tranforming the region into a competitive hub. The project was instigated by the new king, Mohamed VI, who came to power after the death of his father, Hassan II, in 1999; he sees the region's strategic location as central to the country's development. The aim is that Tanger Med will increase Morocco's competitiveness by attracting foreign investments and boosting the country's industries [textile and manufacturing]. The port's container activities will be complemented by a series of free zones, which will develop the country's import and export capacity. As a deep-sea port, it will comfortably accommodate the latest generation of super container ships. Under current plans, the port will have a capacity of 3.5 million TEU by 2010; a possible extension could add 5 million TEU. With a total capacity approaching 9 million, Tanger-Med would be among the 15 largest ports in the world. Tanger Med Port activities started on July 27th 2007 with the opening of Tanger Med Port first container terminal. As far as port infrastructure is concerned, it is built according to the joint use of the rubble-mound breakwater and reinforced concrete caissons breakwater techniques. This strengthens the port protection from rough seas and allows an optimal use of the basin’s surface while providing the vessels with the possibility to berth alongside the jetty. The primary features of the port are as follows :
Develpoment Progress
Transport
News Questions Over Tangier Med T4 -
December 2009 Rabat is still hopeful PSA will reconsider its position when international trade recovers but, either way, TC4’s launch mooted for 2011 will now be delayed from 2012 to 2014 at the earliest. Much of Tangier Med’s initial appeal lay in its lower labour costs. But over the course of developing the port, its anticipated costs have soared from US$1.7bn to nearly $2.3bn. Morocco Goes It Alone With Tanger
Med 2 Project - 19/06/09 Marsa Maroc had been due to take on the concession for the operation of Terminal 4 at Tangier Med 2 with Singapore’s PSA and local investment company Société Nationale d’Investissement but has signed the concession contract alone. TMSA said that its development plans for Tangier Med 2 had had to be redefined after it had failed to reach agreement with other would-be operators in time to meet the deadline set. Terminal 3 is now only to be built if demand from international terminal operators is confirmed, according to TMSA. Tangier Med 2, work on which was officially launched last week, is now due into service in the second quarter of 2014, 15-18 months after originally planned. [LL19/06/09] Tanger Med II Presses On Regardless
- 05/07/09 The works are expected to start in the first half of 2010 and will run for close to four and half years [51 months] with up to 1,500 people working on site at peak times. Tangier Med 2 will complement the Tangier Med 1 complex, also built by Bouygues Travaux Publics, Bymaro, and Saipem, consisting of a container port [completed in 2006] and a ferry terminal [to be handed over in 2010]. [B&C 05/07/09] Tanger Med I together with Tanger Med II will offer a total capacity of 8-million TEUs, making the Tangier Med port complex one of the world’s largest transhipment hubs. The new port will be essentially dedicated to container activities and will provide an additional throughput capacity of 5-million TEU. The new port facilities, scheduled to be operational by the second half of 2012, will include two new container terminals. During the first phase of the project, all the basic infrastructure of the port and only one of the two containers terminals of the port, with a quay-length of 1,200 metres and a capacity of 2.2-million containers, will be designed and built. The second terminal of the port, with a quay-length of 1,600 metres and a capacity of 3-million containers, will be developed on the basis of future market demand. Final official approval for "Tangier Med II" was received on 7 January 2009, with actual construction started on 17 June 2009. The port is expected to reach full capacity by 2015, and to operate 8 million containers, 7 million passengers, 700,000 trucks, 2 million vehicles, and 10 million MT of oil products. Website: www.tmsa.ma Work Starts At Casablanca - 24/11/08 As part of the expansion plans, work on providing a new access road to the port has been given the go ahead, following the government’s decision to provide US$13-million in funding. The road, which is scheduled for completion in April 2010, should improve the flow of traffic between the various terminals and the city of Casablanca itself. Marsa Maroc is also developing together with Spain’s Autoterminal SA the first car terminal at Casablanca with a storage capacity for 5000-6000 vehicles in a 3-storey building. It is expected to be completed by the middle of 2009. Casablanca handled 26.3Mt of cargo last year, more than a third of all cargo that passed through Morocco’s ports. The port, which currently boasts 35 berths, is mainly served by ro-ro ships and cellular vessels of less than 1,000TEU, on short routes between North Africa and Europe. However, the new port of Tanger-Med is rapidly usurping Casablanca’s position as Morocco’s most important port and is expected to have handling capacity of 8-millionTEU by 2015. Casablanca, in comparison, is designed to handle just 750,000 TEU. [WCN 24/11/08] Tangier Secures Global Giants For
Box Terminals - Consortia Seeks €600m
Investment - 14/07/08 A consortium including Maersk, APM Terminals and Morocco’s Akwa Group won the contract to operate the 78 ha Terminal 3, with forecast throughput of 3m. APM and Akwa already work together operating the first of Tangier’s existing box terminals, which entered service late last year. The second concession awarded during week 28 was for the 54 ha Terminal 4 and went to a consortium made up of Singapore-based PSA and two Moroccan companies, port operator Marsa Maroc and investment holding SNI. This facility will have an annual capacity of 2m teu. The terminals form part of phase two of major port works in Tangier Mediterranean on Morocco’s northern coast. Construction works for Tangier Med II will be launched at the end of 2008 once the construction contract is awarded and the financial structure is finalised. Terminals 3 and 4 are scheduled to start up at the end of 2012. Under the 30-year concession agreements to be signed between the consortiums and TMSA, the winning bidders commit to provide all superstructures and equipment needed to operate the two terminals, involving an initial investment of €600m. A throughput of more than 5m teu for both terminals starting from the fifth year of operation are anticipated. The second terminal in Tangier Med is operated by a consortium consisting of Eurogate-Contship Italia, Comanav, Mediterranean Shipping Co and CMA CGM. It is expected to begin operations in August this year. Once the third and fourth terminals are operational, Tangier Med will have overall capacity to handle 8m teu in annual throughput. [LL 14/07/08] Kalmar's Tangier Order -
01/08/08 The RTGs are destined for the Tangier Medgate Terminal at the brand new Tangier Mediterranean Port - located at the crossroads of the major East-West and North-South container shipping routes. Morocco’s greenfield port and intermodal site will offer world class services and state-of-the-art facilities when it opens in July 2008. Tangier Mediterranean Port, a project which began in 2002 and cost more than US$2bn to build, features an oil storage facility, a grain terminal, a passenger port and a container terminal with a capacity of three million containers. The government plans to spend up to US$18bn to improve the area’s infrastructure, putting it in a position to take advantage of Morocco’s status as the only North African country with free trade agreements with the US and EU. [Maritime Global Net 01/08/07] Kalmar Industries Spain-Morocco Train Tunnel Feasibility
Study Draws To An End - August 2008 Tangier Port Officially Opens This
Month - 15/07/07 It comes at a good time. Morocco's trade with the EU is booming: exports rose from US$7.1 billion in 2001 to US$11.3 billion in 2006, while imports soared from US$11 billion to US$22.4 billion. Trade between Africa and Europe is also rising: African exports to the EU doubled between 1999 and 2006 to EU$113 billion. The country also signed a free trade agreement with the US in January 2006 that is expected to lead to an increase in exports to North America. One in five container ships transits through the Mediterranean, so the increase in traffic is likely to be significant. As Tanger-Med sits on both the east-west and north-south shipping routes, and represents only a small detour for passing ships, it will focus on transhipment where containers are transferred from one ship to another for different legs of their journey. As a deep-sea port, it will comfortably accommodate the latest generation of super container ships. Experts forecast that container shipping will reach 60 million TEU by 2030-35 [current capacity stands at 25-26 million TEU]. Under current plans, the port will have a capacity of 3.5 million TEU by 2010; a possible extension could add 5 million TEU, although plans have not been finalised. With a total capacity approaching 9 million, Tanger-Med would be among the 15 largest ports in the world. The first container terminal will be operated by APM Terminals Tangier, part of the AP Moller-Maersk Group, and the second by EuroGate Tangier, a consortium comprising leading terminal operator Eurogate, Italian shipping line Contship Italia, Moroccan shipping line Comanav, and MSC and CMA CGM, two of the world's biggest shipping lines. Maersk, MSC and CMA-CGM alone could fill the port's capacity. Terminal 1 is set to start operating in July this year and is due to reach full capacity by October. Terminal 2 will open in 2008 and the hydrocarbon terminal at the end of that year. All terminals will be multi-user facilities [although Terminals 1 and 2 are likely to see most of their business come from their shareholders] and will reserve part of their capacity for import and export activities. Tanger-Med also features a dry bulk and general cargo terminal, and a passenger and a roll-on roll-off terminal for trucks and trains, capable of handling 6 million passengers a year. Construction has just started and if all goes to plan, it will be ready by summer 2009. The port and the free zones will employ 150,000 people in the long run. The Tangiers Free Zone [TFZ] is a pioneer of what is set to become a crucial part of Tanger-Med's success. Started in 1999, the TFZ was designed to attract foreign investors to Morocco through a comprehensive package of incentives: no import tax, no benefit tax for the first five years [8.75% thereafter], no custom duty, business conducted in home currency [no exchange rate] and state subsidies for industrial estates in priority industries such as automotives, aeronautics and electronics. There are now 254 companies in the TFZ, mostly from southern Europe [although a couple of large Japanese investors use TFZ as their European hub that have generated US$330 million worth of investment. TMSA is now a shareholder of TFZ and is likely to capitalise on this to develop two more industrial free zones in the port's hinterland. Tanger-Med will also benefit from a logistics free zone, Medhub: located behind the container terminals, it will focus on light, value-added activities and process container goods in transit. Third-party logistics companies that specialise in distribution, such as TNT or UPS, will use the zone as a distribution platform. The concept was tried and tested in Dubai with immense success and it was a logical step for the parent company Jebel Ali Free Zone [Jafza] to run Medhub. TMSA was given $200 million by the Hassan II Fund, which promotes socio-economic projects in Morocco. The company also received a $100 million grant from the Abu Dhabi Fund, a UAE development fund that finances major infrastructure projects with strong social impacts in the Middle East, and a further $200 million loan at a subsidised rate. This capital of $500 million paid for the port's main infrastructure. Contacts
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