Moroccan authorities definitely met the deadlines on TangerMed port project, as APM Terminals Tangier, a subsidiary of AP-Moller Maersk, inaugurated the first container terminal of the huge complex on 27th July, the concession of which it won for 30 years.
Real operations with full containers should start in this month. The second container terminal won by the Eurogate-Contship consortium, with French CMA-CGM, Moroccan Comanav (now belonging to CMA) and Swiss MSC, is to open next year.
After completion, TangerMed will offer over 1,600m of quay line and be able to handle 3.5m TEU, 1m vehicles and 500 000 trucks a year, in addition to hydrocarbon, bulk and general cargo terminals.
Dredging, works on the embankment and part of the quays were carried out by the French Bouygues consortium, with Moroccan Bimaro (subsidiary of Bouygues) and Italian Saipem, at a cost of ¢215m. The 1,600m of linear quay was built at a cost of ¢87m by another consortium, comprising Somagec, first Moroccan maritime construction company, and Belgium's Besix, who did similar quays in the Emirates and is currently building Dubai's biggest towers in the world.
The deepwater port is located on the Strait of Gibraltar only 14km away from Algeciras port, at the very crossroad of the main East-West and North-South maritime trade lanes, where 200 vessels pass every day. Even Algeciras' launching of the Isla Verde extension, with 4.5m additional container capacity, shouldn't harm TangerMed's development, as container volumes are to double by 2014. The platform is bound to become a major transhipment hub in the Mediterranean Sea.
TangerMed will be able to accomodate the biggest ships in the world, even future ones given its depth alongside of 16 to 18 meters and approach time of less than 90 minutes', said Etienne Rocher, manager of APM Terminals' Tangier states.
Maersk Sealand created the Singapore-Algeciras direct lane with 17 days transit time, rushing ships into using the road for trade between China and Africa or China and West Mediterranean ports. Competitors had no other choice but try to catch up and settle at Gibraltar too. TangerMed
Three future free trade zones connected to the port will also stimulate import export activities independently from the Moroccan market. The logistic one operated with Emirati Jafza will open in spring of 2008. Goods arriving from remote destinations will be packaged there and shipped through feeders to smaller ports or cheaply re-exported by trucks
TangerMed is expected to reach saturation by 2015. To cope with it, another similar project called TangerMed 2, has already been launched a few miles west from TangerMed 1. Bigger than TangerMed 1, the $1.7bn TM2 will raise the complex capacity to over 8m containers a year by 2012.
TM2's 2,800m of berths will be awarded in two blocs; one container terminal of 1,600m and another with binding public service requirements. Maersk, which belongs to the short list of candidates for the dedicated terminal, is holding its breath until the result in the first quarter of 2008. Competition should indeed be ruthless to prevent ambitious Chinese shipping companies from settling in one of their natural markets.
By Nathalie Gillet in Tangier
