Tangier Port Processes Grow by 23% in 2020

Moroccan ports handled a total of 81 million tons in 2020, an increase of 23 percent compared to the previous year.

A total of 5,771,221 TEU containers were handled at the Tanger Med port complex in 2020, an increase of 20 percent compared to 2019.

Recent activities at the port of Tangier Med have shown sustained growth throughout 2020, according to the Tanger Med Port Authority (TMPA). Tanger Med alone processed 47 percent of the total port tonnage of Morocco last year, making it the leading port on the Mediterranean.

Liquid bulk traffic grew by 26 percent compared to 2019, with total traffic of 7,968,485 tons of treated hydrocarbons. This is mostly due to bunkering activity by ships passing through the Strait of Gibraltar, which generated traffic of nearly 1.6 million tons.

As for solid bulk traffic, it recorded a total of 303,705 processed tons, an increase of 18 percent compared to the previous year, mainly thanks to the traffic of steel coils, wind turbine blades and cereals.

Despite COVID-19-induced difficulties, the Tanger Med port finished the year with international transport truck traffic similar to 2019, with 357,331 trucks passing through, mostly concerning the agro-food sector, TMPA said.

In addition, it noted that 358,175 new vehicles were handled at the two-vehicle terminals of the Tanger Med port in 2020, down 28 percent compared to last year.

This variation is explained by the drop in vehicle sales in Europe and by the slowdown in automobile production by Renault and PSA during the March-May period due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Source: Asharq Al-Awsat