zoomImage Courtesy: APM Terminals

Maersk’s APM Terminals has been named as the operator of a new container transshipment terminal at the Tangier Med 2 port complex, situated in Morocco, on Africa’s northwest coast near the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea on the Strait of Gibraltar.

APM Terminals already operates the APM Terminals Tangier facility at Tangier Med 1 port, which started operations in July of 2007 and handled 1.7 million TEUs in 2015.

Total investment in the new terminal is expected to be EUR 758 million, with APMT’s sister liner company Maersk Line to 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 Tangier Med Special Agency (TMSA), which has responsibility for the development and management of the Tanger Med port complex. The new terminal will have annual capacity of five million TEUs.

Tangier-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.

APM Terminals MedPort Tangier will have up to 2,000 meters of quay length and will feature the technology pioneered at the APM Terminals Maasvlakte II Rotterdam terminal which opened in 2015, the company said.

“APM Terminals has been in Morocco since the creation of our first company APM Terminals Tangier in March 2005 in partnership with AKWA Group and the start of port operations in July 2007. Today’s announcement shows our strong commitment to investing in trade and improving supply chains in the West Med market. Morocco and its port arm, TMSA, have been very supportive of APM Terminal’s vision for the West Med,” said APM Terminals CEO Kim Fejfer.

While African ports at present account for only 4.5% of global port throughput (including transshipment cargoes), the United Nations 2015 World Population Prospects Report projects that more than half of the world’s population growth between 2015 and 2050 will occur in Africa, with the African population more than doubling from 1.1 billion to 2.4 billion over the next three and a half decades.