El puerto de Tánger-Med ocupa el puesto vigésimo tercero a nivel mundial

The magazine Alphaliner, specialised in merchant shipping, has published its new ranking of the best ports in the world, and those with the greatest commercial traffic. The Alaouite kingdom is present in this ranking, represented by the port complex of Tangier-Med, which was ranked 23rd in the world. In the last two years, it has grown very rapidly (+49%), reaching 7.1 million TEUs. Only three of the 30 ports included in the ranking have recorded a lower container traffic, but the Moroccan kingdom, in contrast, has experienced strong growth.

Ten years ago, Morocco began its port career by creating the National Port Strategy, in which a series of objectives were set which it hoped would be achieved by 2030 by the various ports throughout the Kingdom, but in particular by the port of Tangier-Med. This port was put into operation in 2007, and in 2019 had an extension, which gave it the position of being the largest port in the whole of the Mediterranean in terms of capacity of containers traded.

Since 2020, the port of Tangier-Med has shown strong growth, which has been maintained in 2021, according to the Tangier-Med Port Authority (TMPA). This has pushed the modern Moroccan port to the top of all Mediterranean ports, thanks to the Kingdom's multi-million dollar investments, unseating the port of Algeciras, located on the other side of the Strait of Gibraltar in southern Spain. 

The marine infrastructure is a port located on the northern Moroccan side of the Strait of Gibraltar, about 45 kilometres from the Moroccan city of Tangier, and about 20 kilometres from the Spanish city of Ceuta. "Tangier-Med is a world logistics port located on the Strait of Gibraltar, connected to 186 world ports, with a capacity to handle 9 million containers, 7 million passengers, 700,000 trucks and 1 million vehicles," Tangier-Med said.
 

The strategic position of the port complex gives the port a certain importance. Firstly, it connects the point on the Moroccan coast closest to the point on the coast of the Iberian peninsula, and secondly, numerous maritime routes connecting Europe, Africa and America pass through it.

On the other hand, Tangier-Med is an industrial platform made up of more than 900 companies, which earn 7.3 billion euros, in terms of annual turnover in the various automotive, textile, aeronautical, commercial, etc. sectors. In addition, it is a port specialising in transit container trade, a type of trade which uses the port as a stopover on its way to another port, its final destination.

The Alphaliner ranking includes the 30 ports with the highest container traffic worldwide, all of which have handled more than 450 million TEUs over the past year, representing a 6.8% growth compared to 2020, according to data from the British consultancy Alphaliner. 

The figures achieved by the Alawi kingdom two years ago were very good, considering the pandemic crisis and tough restrictions, yet last year's figures have far exceeded those of 2020. As Morocco eases restrictions and opens its borders, it is expected to perform better by 2022, meeting the targets set out in its National Ports Strategy 2030.

However, the North African nation wants to achieve a series of favourable results for the future and has therefore invested in new infrastructure capacity with the aim of positioning the port of Tangier, and indeed the country, as a maritime power in both the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.