Morocco has secured €400m to fund the expansion of its truck and passenger terminal at Tanger Med Port.
The expansion will more than double the port’s truck handling capacity to more than 1 million units, up from 477,000 units shipped last year.
Located northeast of Tangier on the Strait of Gibraltar, the five-year-old port ships trucks around the world, including those made at two Renault factories and one Stellantis factory in Morocco.
Financing for the expansion comes from two arms of the World Bank: the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA).
The IFC provided €197m, and is associated with increasing the employment of women and the use of renewable energy.
MIGA will back a €203m loan from a consortium of banks led by JP Morgan. This will protect the banks from non-payment for the next 15 years.
“This project will enable the port complex to significantly increase its truck handling capacity, support export growth in the agribusiness and industrial sectors, and further reinforce trade links between Morocco and Europe,” said Loubna Ghaleb, strategy director at Tanger Med Group.
Tanger Med opened in 2019 after a nine-year construction period.
It handles 9.6 million containers a year, making it the largest port in the Mediterranean and Africa.
It’s surrounded by an economic zone with an annual export value of €8bn, which makes it central to the Moroccan government’s economic development strategy.
It was built by Bouygues of France and Boskalis of the Netherlands, and is operated by Maersk’s APM Terminals, which also invested $800m in its construction.
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