Box growth slows at Tangier Med port in 2022Box growth slows at Tangier Med port in 2022

Despite its impressive performance since 2019, when capacity jumped from 3m teu to 9m teu, annual volumes grew only 6% last year, to 7.60m teu, as competition in the Mediterranean basin heated up.

Tanger Med Port Authority also said that in at least one month, a target of 700,000 teu was breached.

Total tonnage handled at the port was also up 6%, to 107.8m tonnes.

The port complex handled 459,091 TIR trucks in 2022, up 13% from in 2021.

Increasing vehicle traffic saw 478,589 new vehicles handled at the port complex’s two vehicle terminals in 2022, up 11% on 2021. The figure included 295,393 export vehicles produced by Renault factories Melloussa and Somaca, and 124,112 export vehicles from Peugeot’s Stellantis plant at Kenitra.

Liquid bulk traffic grew by 6% compared to 2021, to a total of 9.26m tonnes of hydrocarbons. Dry bulk volumes were up 18% to 404,007 tonnes, mainly in traffic of sheet coils and cereals.

“During the year 2022, a total of 14,404 ships docked at the Tangier Med port complex, growth of 32% compared to 2021, including 961 mega-ships (size larger than 290 meters),” TMPA said.

Tangier Med’s growth has continued to surprise, and the facility also drew attention when it ranked sixth in  the World Bank's Container Port Performance Index (CPPI) 2021.

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In a notable development in the global trend of nearshoring, volumes at Tangier Med overtook those at neighboring port, Spain’s Algeciras, in 2019, which has seen throughput hold largely static at around 5m teu since 2016.