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Country Information > West Africa > Morocco Agency
Details Saga c/o Comarine Click here for a list of all OTAL agency offices
Casablanca
Port Information Casablanca port infrastructure General Lyautey imposed, despite unanimous opposition, the development of Casablanca's port, which was designed in 1907. The port complex has become the city's economic centre, covering an area of 445 acres and is now one of the largest artificial ports in the world. It is protected from the Atlantic swell by the 3,180-metre long Moulay Youssef Pier. The port itself includes several docks, shipyards, a rail terminal, a marina and a dock for ferries and cruise-ships. The port is the second largest in Maghreb, handling around 70% of Morocco's shipping traffic. OT Africa Line calls at the 'New Container Terminal', located to the north of the port.
Transport
News Kalmar's Tangier Order 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 Tangier Port Officially Opens This Month 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. Morocco On Mission To Find Trade In Senegal Morocco, UEMOA Discuss Trade Agreements
- 15/08/06 ADB Finance Highway Project - 15/08/06 Two Cereal Terminals To Be Built
-15/08/06 Tangier-Mediterranean
Port Project - 15/08/06 Contacts
and Links Ministère de l’équipement
et du transport
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