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Tanger Med multiplies traffic records in 2021


Written by Eric Apim on Thursday, January 13th 2022 à 11:55 | Read 1502 times



​With its three dedicated terminals, Tanger Med has become in a few years the first Mediterranean port for container traffic (photo: F.Dubessy)
​With its three dedicated terminals, Tanger Med has become in a few years the first Mediterranean port for container traffic (photo: F.Dubessy)
MOROCCO. With a total of 7.17 million TEU (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units) containers handled in its complex in 2021, the port of Tanger Med sets a new record and a growth of 24% compared to the previous year. "This traffic is the result of the continuous ramp-up of the Tangier Med 2 port after the successive start-up of the TC4 terminals in 2019 and TC3 in 2021 ", says the Tangier Med Port Authority in a press release published on Wednesday 12 January 2022.

In global tonnage, the Mediterranean port situated on the Straits of Gibraltar and connected to some 180 world ports, is achieving a record with 101 million tonnes of goods handled. This is 25% more than in 2020. This figure represents more than 50% of the overall tonnage recorded in all the Moroccan ports.

Ro-Ro traffic (407,459 TIR trucks) is up by 14%, fuelled "by the recovery of industrial exports, as well as by the good performance of the agricultural campaign and agro-industrial exports," says the Port Authority of Tangier Med.

The traffic of new vehicles (429,509) has increased by 20% on the two dedicated terminals with notably 278,661 Renaults of which 250,532 are destined for export and 100,030 PSA cars for export.

Passenger traffic alone is down

The proportions of progression remain a little more modest for the solid bulk traffic (342 804 tonnes handled - +13%) carried by steel coils, wind turbine blades and cereals. As for liquid bulk and its 8.74 million tonnes of hydrocarbons handled (+9%).

10,902 ships called at Tanger Med in 2021 (+12%), including 929 megaships over 290 metres in size.

Amidst all these good results - the extent of which must be put into perspective as they relate to a difficult year 2020 due to Covid-19 - passenger traffic (587 320) is the only one to pale into insignificance with a 14% drop, due to the impact of health.

Launched in 2002, the Tangier Med port project was inaugurated in 2007 (2010 for passengers and ro-ro) and has become in a few years the first port in the Mediterranean for containers and the twenty-fourth in the world (31st in 2019) according to the ranking established for 2020 by Alphaliner, a database specialising in maritime transport. It has a turnover of €5.3 billion in 2020.

The port has the capacity to handle 9 million containers, 7 million passengers, 700,000 TIR trucks and 1 million vehicles. Spread over an area of 1,000 hectares, the complex includes the port of Tanger Med 1, the passenger and ro-ro port, the Tanger Med 2 port and a business centre Tanger Med Port Center. It hosts three container terminals: TC1 (delivered in July 2007) and TC4 (June 2019) operated by the Dutch APM Terminals, TC2 (August 2008) managed by the Rotterdam-based Eurogate, and TC3 (January 2021) entrusted to the Moroccan Tanger Alliance (majority owned by Marsa Maroc - 50% - Contship Italia, Eurogate International and Hapag Lloyd).



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