Inaugurated in 2007 and located not far from the Strait of Gibraltar, the port complex that currently serves 174 destinations worldwide handled 51.3 million tonnes of cargo last year and managed 3.3 million containers.
Created at the same time, the industrial park backed by the port, in a free zone, "grows and creates more and more jobs", at a rate that "exceeds expectations", welcomes Jaafar Mrhardy, the director General of "Tangier Med Zone".
There are now 750 companies - mostly automotive, but also textile, electronics, aeronautics, logistics, agribusiness - and 70,000 jobs for a turnover of 5.5 billion euros in 2017, according to Tanger Med.
And it's not over. The opening of the Tanger Med II extension will triple the container capacity from 2019, with the ambition of becoming the first port in the Mediterranean.
Jaafar Mrhardy is confident: "the idea is to have a greater role in Africa: Morocco has invested in the counter-cycle of the port sector between 2008 and 2012, at a time when the market was shrinking and this investment has given us a head start. "
The construction machines are working on the embankments, three gigantic gantries have already been delivered. Despite the bad weather, you can see on the other side of the strait the Spanish port of Algeciras.
On one of the Tanger Med I docks, a monumental wind turbine produced by a Siemens Gamesa unit, which has been open for a few months, is waiting to be transported to its destination.
Nearby, security guards assisted by a dog handler control cars when boarding a ferry to Italy.
The passenger terminal welcomed 2.8 million passengers last year. "During the peak of the season, there are 32-33,000 passengers and 8 to 9,000 vehicles per day," says Hassan Abkari, director of the passenger pole. According to him, the new port has reduced waiting times and made it possible to unclog the center of Tangier.
Nearly 290,000 international road hauliers passed through Tangier Med last year, via the motorway junction that bypasses the city located about fifty kilometers. Day and night, rounds of trucks connect the docks of the port complex, the warehouses of storage and the companies of the industrial zone.
The workshops of "Still Nua Fashion", installed in one of the alleys of the free zone, receive containers of fabrics from China and Turkey. Models made in Ireland are cut and sewn here and shipped to the United States and Great Britain.
"We are in the 'fast-fashion', with very short delivery times, the proximity of the port is crucial," says Naoual El-Mlih, the energetic director of Still Nua.
"Time is money: before to Hamburg, it took three weeks, now it's ten to 12. The connections are direct, we can receive or remove a container in less than 24 hours" adds Mohamed Ali Enneifer.
Arrived on the site at the beginning of the development work, this Tunisian has just been recruited to lead the new unit of Acome, a French company specializing in the production of cables.
For him, the announced arrival of the Chinese automaker BYD, which will open an electric vehicle plant by 2025 in a 100% Chinese industrial park, is "excellent news".
"We are positioning ourselves as a 'best cost' country, with proximity to European markets and very competitive costs, which favors competitiveness and profitability", argues Jaafar Mrhady.
The French group Renault, which chose to settle there in 2012, exported last year more than 300,000 cars in the 74 countries served by the port.
"Next year, we will export all the cars from the new Peugeot factory that will arrive by train Kenitra", about 200 km south, or "150,000 additional vehicles in 2019-2020", welcomes Rachid Houari, the pole port.
Beyond the logistics or customs facilities offered by the free zone, the cost of Moroccan labor is a major asset.
"The parent company in Ireland employs 75 people, with a cost substantially equal to that of our unit which has 400 employees," explains the director of the workshop "Still Nua Fashion". Next step: the relocation of design, which is still done in Dublin.
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