Morocco's Tanger Med port expects rise in nominal container capacity

Morocco's industrial port complex Tanger Med expects to exceed its nominal capacity of nine million containers this year, the port's deputy managing director told Reuters on Monday.

Tanger Med's tonnage rose 14.9 percent to 33.3 million metric tons in the first quarter of 2024, while revenue rose 18.3 percent to 1 billion dirhams.

«Now each terminal is doing a little bit more in traffic than the theoretical capacity, so I think we will do a little bit better than nine million containers», Rachid Houari told the English news agency. «We want our port to work at its maximum best productivity», he explained.

The port's performance can be explained by its strategic location, its partnerships with major shipping lines and terminal operators such as Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM, Houari said. Attacks by Iranian-aligned Houthi militants in the Red Sea are also seen as a reason for the port's growth.

For the record, the port of Tangier Med was the largest in the Mediterranean, handling 8.61 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in 2023, up 13.4% from 2022.