A few days after moderating a roundtable on Morocco in Madrid, I wrote this op-ed for the Mobility and Transport magazine of elEconomista. One question had hung over the whole debate: are Moroccan ports a threat to Algeciras or Barcelona?
My answer: the question is badly framed. The problem is not technical. It is one of mindset.
The numbers
Tanger Med closed 2025 with 11.1 million TEUs, up 131% since 2019, the fastest growth among the world’s 30 largest ports in that period. Algeciras handled 4.7 million TEUs and Valencia 5.7 million. Tanger Med now moves more than twice as much as either of Spain’s two leading ports.
What the souks have always known
In a Moroccan souk, businesses in the same trade sit side by side: leather in one street, textiles in another, brass further on. To Western eyes this looks like a strategic mistake. Yet it works. Together they attract customers that none could attract alone. The customer does not choose between them; the customer chooses the place.
This is not folklore. Economists call it the cluster effect, and it is exactly the logic Tanger Med and Algeciras should apply to the Strait of Gibraltar, the only passage between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Acting as a complementary cluster, they can capture a decisive share of world shipping. Competing on their own, they fight over crumbs.
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A European problem, not a bilateral one
The article also takes up the EU Emissions Trading System, fully applied to shipping in 2026. Puertos del Estado estimates the extra cost for ships calling at Spanish ports at €142 million, around €1.3 million per ship per year. But the ETS is not a Spain–Morocco issue. Eight other EU countries have jointly asked for its review, and traffic diversions are already appearing towards the United Kingdom, Egypt and Turkey. The same pressure that affects Algeciras affects Piraeus, Marseille and Genoa. A European problem needs a European, corridor-wide answer.
Morocco plays on the geopolitical board. Europe must also play on the economic one. They are not alternative boards: they are the same board, seen from two angles.
Update, autumn 2026
With Nador West Med due to start operations in the last quarter of 2026, the Strait is about to gain a third major port. The argument of this article becomes more relevant, not less.
See also:
- Spain–Morocco Logistics: From Competition to Complementarity, the roundtable that inspired this article.
