Morocco Signs Off Tanger Med 3: 4.5 Million TEU More, First Ships Expected Mid-2031

Morocco has moved its flagship port expansion from announcement to execution. The Royal Office confirmed on 28 October that Tanger Med 3 will be built west of Tanger Med 2, and the supporting legal work was finished months earlier. For exporters and forwarders routing through the Mediterranean, here is what matters.

• Capacity and timing: 1,200 metres of quay and 3,000 metres of breakwater; 4.5 million TEU of initial annual capacity with headroom to 5 million. Marine works are valued at MAD 8 billion (about $811 million); public investment tops EUR 730 million and private concessionaires add more than EUR 1.4 billion, taking the combined figure above EUR 2.1 billion. Construction started at the end of October and first vessel calls are expected in mid-2031.
• The deal structure: the concession with APM Terminals MedPort Tangier was signed on 31 July and approved by government decree No 2.26.743 on 9 September, three months before the public announcement. Morocco's SGTM construction group has confirmed its role in the winning consortium.
• Scale: Tanger Med handled 11.1 million TEU in 2025, up 8.4 percent, and the wider programme could lift the complex close to 20 million TEU a year — top-ten territory among world container ports.
• Network context: Gemini carriers have leaned on Tangier transhipment while routing around the Suez Canal, and the sister project Nador West Med is close to opening its first container terminal (ultimately 3.5 million TEU), with a second planned for April 2027.
• What shippers should do: for North and West Africa cargo, Tangier is a calmer transhipment option than congested southern European hubs before 2027. Moroccan exporters should negotiate first-phase terminal rates now — new terminals routinely offer dedicated berths and free storage windows at opening, as the NEOM port launch showed. And watch APM's Nigerian negotiations: extension talks on Apapa and Onne concessions plus an exclusive-negotiation MOU for the Badagry deep-water port signal a second West Africa play within two years.

Two structural reads are worth the time. The concession consolidates APM Terminals' position in the western Mediterranean just as carriers prepare for a partial Suez return, which means Tangier's role is shifting from crisis workaround to permanent network node - carriers rarely abandon a transhipment hub that has proven itself through two years of rerouting. And the project sits inside a wider industrial story: the Tangier free zone's automotive and aerospace plants feed the port's export flows, so the new capacity is underpinned by local cargo, not just transhipment volumes that can move elsewhere overnight. That combination is what keeps terminal utilisation up when spot networks shuffle.

Routing options across the region are listed on our Africa route page.

Source: Based on Africa Ports & Ships, World Ports and Maritime News.