Morocco to build another new container port

Morocco is to build a $1.7 billion container port in Tangier to complement the major new terminal that is due to start operations in July, government officials said on Friday.

They added that the project had been endorsed by Morocco's King Mohammed at a meeting of senior government officials, news reports said.

The new port  will be close to the $2 billion Tangier Mediterranean port that has been under construction since 2002 and which is due to be operational in July.


The two ports will benefit from a network of roads, highways and rail linking the area to a free-trade zone nearby and to the rest of the country.

A senior official involved in the latest project said that almost half the $1.7 billion investment needed for the proposed container port would come from private investors, both in Morocco and abroad.

The new port project, which will have three container terminals, is projected to have a handling capacity of five million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) per year.

The Tangier Mediterranean port has one container terminal with a handling capacity of three million TEUs per year, along with oil storage, a cereals terminal and other facilities.

Tangier Mediterranean Special Agency chairman Said Elhadi has said that the Tangier port hub had the potential to be one of the biggest and most competitive maritime hubs in the Mediterranean region.

The Moroccan government is currently in the midst of a more than $18 billion investment plan for the 2002-2015 period to take advantage of its status as the only North African country linked with free trade agreements to the United States and the European Union.