Traffic at Tangier Port Spikes 202%

Passenger traffic at Tanger-Med port jumped by 202% this summer compared to 1,741,212 passengers last year.

The number of vehicles handled by the port hit 464,977 while the number of buses rose to 4,390, the port’s authority said.

It ascribed the recent car jam that stretched for nearly 18km from the port to the high number of passengers and cars of Moroccan expatriates returning to Europe after spending the summer vacation in the homeland.

In the single day of August 27, 53,157 passengers and 10,510 vehicles used the port, it said.

Last month, Tanger-Med was ranked as the first container port in Africa and the 45th in the world in a survey by World Top Container Ports.

With a capacity of 3 million containers, the Moroccan port has handled 3,312,409 containers in 2017 that is 11% over its capacity.

The Tanger-Med Port authority aims to bring its container handling capacity to 9 million containers in 2019. This would enable the port to be in the world’s top 20.