The Moroccan government has confirmed the signing of a concession agreement with Maersk-APM, part of the A.P. Moller-Maersk Group, for the development and operation of a new container terminal at Tanger Med 3, the next expansion of the port complex located on the southern shore of the Strait of Gibraltar. The facility, scheduled to enter service in mid-2031, will have an annual handling capacity of 4.5 million TEU, expandable to five million.
The project was presented on October 28 at a meeting chaired by King Mohammed VI at the Royal Palace in Rabat, devoted to the development of Morocco’s port infrastructure. According to a statement from the Royal Cabinet, Tanger Med 3 will be built west of Tanger Med 2 and will have 1,200 linear meters of quays, with an estimated investment of 8 billion dirhams.
Tanger Med Port Authority Director General Idriss Aarabi specified that construction of the maritime infrastructure is the responsibility of the port authority, while the concessionaire will undertake the development, equipment, and operation of the terminal. The facilities will also include around 3,000 meters of protective breakwaters. The works have been awarded to a Moroccan consortium through an international tendering process, with construction scheduled to begin in late October 2026.
The new facility will begin receiving ships and containers in mid-2031, according to the schedule provided by Aarabi. Its operations will ramp up gradually to reach the initially planned annual capacity of 4.5 million TEU, with the possibility of further expansion.
The concession will bring APM Terminals’ third terminal to Tanger Med, where the company already operates the TC1 facility at Tanger Med 1 and TC4 at Tanger Med 2. The latter, known as APM Terminals MedPort Tangier, completed an expansion program in December 2024 that increased its annual capacity to 5.2 million TEU and its quay length to two kilometers.
Operations at the existing terminals have made the Moroccan complex Africa’s and the Mediterranean’s leading container port by traffic volume. In 2025, Tanger Med’s four operating terminals handled 11,106,164 TEU, up 8.4% from the previous year. The port authority attributed part of this increase to the commissioning of the final phase of the TC4 expansion, operated by APM Terminals.
The construction of Tanger Med 3 is part of a development program that includes other projects at the existing facilities. These include the eastern expansion of Tanger Med 2, which will add between 1.6 and 1.8 million TEU, as well as expansion works at the passenger and ro-ro port, scheduled to enter service in 2029.
With all these projects, the port complex’s capacity could reach around 20 million containers per year over the next decade, compared with its design capacity of approximately nine million before these expansions. This volume would place Tanger Med among the world’s ten largest container ports by capacity, according to Moroccan authorities’ forecasts.
The overall investment program associated with the development of Tanger Med amounts to 36 billion dirhams, of which 16 billion dirhams will come from private investment. The plan also includes adding 2,000 hectares of new land for economic and industrial activities, with projections for the establishment of another 1,000 companies and the creation of 80,000 jobs.
In parallel, Morocco is developing the Nador West Med port complex on its eastern Mediterranean coast. According to the schedule announced by the authorities, its first container terminal will have a final capacity of 3.5 million TEU, while a second facility, with a capacity of 1.8 million, is scheduled to enter service in April 2027.
The two terminals will have a combined annual capacity of 5.3 million TEU and will attract private investment worth 8 billion dirhams. The Nador complex will also include facilities for hydrocarbons and energy storage, as well as a liquefied natural gas terminal with a planned handling capacity of 5 billion cubic meters per year.
