Due to fierce competition with Moroccan ports, Spanish ports "risk losing 50% of their international container transshipment activity," or more than four million TEUs in the medium term, according to some experts.
The proliferation of bed bugs in France is of great concern to Morocco, which has just implemented a strict prevention system to avoid their "importation" into the kingdom through the ports.
Morocco is pursuing its port strategy for 2030 with Tanger Med as a reference. The kingdom has embarked on a policy of developing modern and competitive ports.
The Marhaba 2023 Operation ended on September 15 with a record traffic of 775,366 vehicles, an 11.5% increase compared to 2022. A figure never reached in 30 years of the Transit Operation.
As of July 23, more than 900,000 (932,120) Moroccans from Europe have embarked from Spanish ports to Morocco as part of the outward phase of Operation Marhaba.
One month after its launch on June 15, the Marhaba 2023 Operation has already recorded the passage of more than 600,000 Moroccans from Europe and 145,000 vehicles from Spanish ports to Morocco.
As of Sunday, July 9, a total of 419,500 Moroccans living abroad and more than 101,000 vehicles have transited through the Spanish ports as part of the Marhaba 2023 Operation.
For a few days now, Moroccans from Europe have been allowed to embark, with or without vehicles, from the port of Malaga to Melilla as part of the Marhaba Operation.
Freight traffic between the port of Malaga and the port of Tanger Med in Morocco has doubled since the launch in mid-March of this maritime link operated daily from Monday to Sunday by Maritima Peregar.
The Nador West Med megaport could start its activities in 2025, announced Sanae Elamrani, the director of ports and maritime domains of the Moroccan Ministry of Equipment.
Tanger Med is improving its position in the ranking carried out each year by the World Bank and S&P Global. It is now among the five most efficient container ports in the world.
Criminal networks are using the logistics serving the hashish traffic from Morocco to the Netherlands via Spain for cocaine trafficking. This is revealed by the 2023 report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).