Tangiers - a new contender in the worlds container ports

An excellent article from World Business profiling business development in North Africa includes a section on Tangiers free zone. $100 million development capital from UAE and a $200 million government loan started a massive construction effort at port Tangiers in Moroco.

Development
Construction has been underway for three years.

Tangiers is finally enjoying something of a renaissance and Tanger-Med is at the heart of it.

The port's container activities will be complemented by a series of free zones, which will develop the country's import and export capacity. "The philosophy is to take advantage of our geographical location, but the objective is to fuel the development of a real industrial platform for Europe, North America and West Africa,"

Growth

It comes at a good time. Morocco's trade with the EU is booming: exports rose from $7.1 billion in 2001 to $11.3 billion in 2006, while imports soared from $11 billion to $22.4 billion. Trade between Africa and Europe is also rising: African exports to the EU doubled between 1999 and 2006 to $113 billion. The country also signed a free trade agreement with the US in January 2006 that is expected to lead to an increase in exports to North America.

Some of the worlds largest shipping lines are already customers: AP Moller-Maersk , MSC and CMA-CGM

Building local industry
Officials are optimistic of the long term benefits to manafacturing and just in time deliveries to Europe

But Mouilek says that it is the possibility of working 'just-in-time' with Europe that constitutes the biggest draw. "Take a retail business such as a consumer goods supermarket chain. It consolidates orders at Shanghai out of products originated from China and neighbouring Asian countries. The order preparation is labour-intensive. If you ordered directly from China, it would be cheap, but it would take a month. If you did it from here, you could have your order sent directly to the supermarkets at a competitive labour cost. We can deliver anywhere in Europe within 12 to 48 hours."

Challenges to come
The unique economic environment has expediated the development of the port but there are still significant challenges ahead

First on the list is the workforce: the local population is poorly educated,
even by Morocco's low standards. The literacy rate was just 53.5% in 2005, and
many of the workers on site are from the better educated south. Finding the
required level of skills for the 150,000 or so jobs will be difficult; Sylvain
Gimenez, project director for Bouygues Construction, says that it's at
supervisor level that skills are lacking.

Tangiers has ambitions be to be a top ten container port in terms of capacity. It faces strong competition from the worlds established container ports.

THE WORLD'S TOP CONTAINER PORTS

Country Port Capacity2006(TEU m)

Singapore Singapore 28.7
Hong Kong Hong Kong 26.1
China Shanghai 19.1
China Shenzhen 17.9
S Korea Busan 12.7
Netherlands Rotterdam 11.8
Belgium Antwerp 11.2
UAE Dubai 10.4
Germany Hamburg 10.1
Taiwan Kaohsiung 9.4
US Los Angeles 9.3
China Qingdao 9.2
US Long Beach 8.6
Malaysia Port Kelang 7.9
Malaysia Tanjung Pelepas 6.7

Source: Drewry Shipping

But in this industry lates comers have been able to leapfrog to the lead in the past. So far Tangiers is off to a great start. It could have significant impact on the trade agreements between the EU and the USA if it successful bringing more economic benefits to North Africa and Europe.

Resources:

wiki Tangiers

World Business Magazine