The third container terminal of the Tangier Med port, in northern Morocco, became operational last week after 18 months of construction.
Marsa Maroc, Morocco’s port management company, today announced through a press release that a launch ceremony on January 1 had marked the official opening of the terminal
Built over an area of 36 hectares, the newly-inaugurated terminal has required a total investment of nearly €175 million ($215 million).
The terminal’s docks are 800 meters long and 18 meters deep. They are equipped with eight cranes for loading and unloading containers from ships, as well as 22 other cranes for moving and storing the containers.
The terminal has the capacity to handle 1.5 million containers every year, based on the twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU), a universal measurement of containers.
On its first day of operation, the third container terminal at the Tangier Med port received one container ship. Activity is expected to gradually increase until it reaches its full potential before June 2021, according to Marsa Maroc.
The terminal will further increase the capacity of the Tangier Med port, which is one of the largest maritime hubs in the Mediterranean and Africa.
In 2019, Tangier Med was the 35th busiest port in the world in terms of container traffic, having handled 4.8 million containers.
The figure has likely increased in 2020 despite the global economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the first six months of 2020, the port handled 2.7 million containers.
