International Cargo Seaport: Tanger Med Port

Morocco is a country located in North Africa. It directly faces the Mediterranean Sea in the north and the Atlantic Ocean in the west. Therefore, it is no surprise that this country also has a busy port. In fact,  Tanger Med Port is Morocco’s port that is also the largest in Africa and the Mediterranean.

About Tanger Med Port

Tanger Med Port is located northeast of Tanger and opposite Tanta, Spain. It is only 14 km away from the Spanish coast, separated by the Gibraltar Strait. The port also lies on the East-West global maritime trade route between Europe, Asia, and North America. It has become the largest and busiest port in Africa and the Mediterranean.

The History

The Tanger Med Port was built to fulfill the country’s desire to have an enormous industrial port. The construction of this deep-sea port was started in 2004. Its operation was started in 2007, and the world’s leading shipping companies started to operate in this port. In 2010, the passenger routes began to operate.

Although the port was officially operating a couple of years ago, it is still under construction to expand the port. The major project was to ease the cargo traffic and expand the facilities.

Volume of Transaction in Tanger Med Port

The port connects 70 countries in the world with more than 180 ports. It has four container terminals with a total capacity of 9 million TEU containers. It also has a hydrocarbon terminal with a storage capacity of 500,000 tons and two-car terminals of 20 hectares storage.

It is a greatly prized port that handled 65 mullion tons of goods in 2019 and has kept increasing since. In 2020, it handled 75 million tons of goods and increased to 101 million tons in 2021. It is impressive growth over such a short term.

Interesting Facts

Tanger Med Port is an industrial port complex. It has an industrial platform that holds 1100 companies in various sectors, such as aeronautics, automotive, food processing, textiles, and logistics. Some of the big companies operating out of this port include Bosch, Huawei, Daher, Siemens, Furukawa Electric, 3M, Decathlon, etc.

Renault Tanger Med in this port also hosts the largest car plant in Africa. The automotive companies found here include Fiat, Delphi Auto, Renault Nissan, Valeo, Hands, Corporation, Denso, Sogefi, Magnetti, and Yazaki.

It is only 14 km away from Spain via the Gibraltar Strait. On the northeast of the port, a giant Arabic inscription of the country’s motto is placed on the flank that can be seen from Tarifa, Spain, 15 km away from the spot. The inscription reads “Allah, Al-Watan, Al-Malik”, which means “Allah, the Homeland, the King.”

As one of the largest ports in the world, Tanger Med Port boasts extensive and best-quality services. Some of them include restaurant areas, shops and boutiques, lounge areas, free Wi-Fi, and a children’s area.

Tanger Med Port is accessible to passengers via gate 2, leading to the ferry terminal. Immigration and customs are available here. Passengers can use the shuttle service to the boarding area.