Morocco to Get First Automated Container Terminal
Port operator APM Terminals to develop a new transshipment terminal in Tangier, Morocco with an annual capacity of five million TEUs.
APM Terminals MedPort Tangier will become operational in 2019, serving multiple trades and will be the first automated terminal in Africa.
The 30-year concession of APM Terminals MedPort Tangier will complement the current operations of the existing APM Terminals Tangier facility.
APM Terminals has been named as the operator of a new container transshipment terminal at the Tanger Med 2 port complex.
APM Terminals already operates the APM Terminals Tangier facility at Tanger Med 1 port, which started operations in July of 2007 and handled 1.7 million TEUs in 2015. The new terminal will have annual capacity of five million TEUs. Total investment in the new terminal is expected to be EUR 758 million.
"At a time when the container shipping industry is in crisis due to low global growth and too many vessels for too few goods to move it is important we are able to invest in bigger and more effective port facilities," Chief Executive Kim Fejfer from APM Terminals said.
Maersk Line will be an important customer of the new terminal. The new terminal is scheduled to open in 2019, under the terms of a 30-year concession agreement with the Tanger Med Special Agency (TMSA), which has responsibility for the development and management of the Tanger Med port complex.
The Tanger-Med port complex is strategically located on Africa’s northwest coast near the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea on the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea meet.
Tanger-Med is the second-busiest container port on the African continent after Port Said, Egypt. The new APM Terminals MedPort Tangier terminal will increase the port’s total annual throughput capacity to over nine million TEUs.
