As the gateway to Africa, Tanger Med (TPMA) – the largest port in the Mediterranean by container volume – handles more than 40% of transhipment traffic to the continent. And now it has placed 19th in the latest annual ranking of the world’s 500 largest ports, published last month by maritime consultancy Alphaliner.

The ranking is based on the number of containers passing through the world’s main trading ports, and the number of containers is expressed in millions of 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs).

An African first

Tanger Med has become the first African port to join the world’s top 20, rising from 7.59 million TEUs in 2022 to 8.61 million in 2023. By the end of 2024, the port – situated on the southern shore of the Strait of Gibraltar – expects to be handling 9 million containers, according to a source at the Tanger Med port authority.

According to the ranking, the Moroccan port achieved the second-best growth in the world’s top 30 between 2022 and 2023, at 13.4%. Only the Chinese port of Qingdao did better, at +16.9% between 2022 and 2023.

Tanger Med also surpassed one of the largest ports in the US – New York Harbor, ranked 21st in the world. The Moroccan port is also ahead of the third-largest port in Europe – Hamburg, ranked 22nd.

$14bn generated by 2023

In Alphaliner’s top 10, seven Chinese ports dominate the ranking: Shanghai (1st), Ningbo-Zhoushan (3rd), Qingdao (4th), Shenzhen (5th), Guangzhou (6th) and Tianjin (8th). Singapore maintains its position as the world’s second-largest port. Busan in South Korea is ranked 7th, Long Beach in California is 9th, and Dubai 10th.

Tanger Med handles a broad range of goods, products and raw materials daily. The cargo includes agri-food, textiles, aeronautics, hydrocarbons, industrial and pharmaceutical products.

By the end of 2023, the port’s annual traffic had reached 122 million tonnes. In terms of value creation, according to Alphaliner, the economic zone – home to almost 1,300 industrial companies – generated $14bn that year.