The Gibraltar Magazine

Gibraltar, although its principal port activity is bunkering, is also interested in acting as a “line-linking” hub for container transhipment, which is experiencing significant growth in the Mediterranean.

At present, containers in the Bay of Gibraltar are handled primarily at the port of Algeciras, operated by Maersk Sea-Land — to handle the increase in activity Algeciras Port is expanding across the Bay to a new port being built at Campamento which will be at least the same size.

Add to these existing port and handling facilities the gigantic super- port in construction just outside Tangiers, on the Moroccan coast just opposite Gibraltar, due to be in business in 2007, and it becomes clear that Gibraltar needs to consider carefully what range and level of services and facilities it wishes to offer.

At the crossroads of the busiest sea-lanes that use the Suez canal as well as being a through- route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean and on to the Far East, the Bay of Gibraltar, Gibraltar and the Campo de Gibraltar also act as a bridge between two continents as well as being the meeting-point of the north-south and east-west traffic routes.

The Port of Algeciras receives more than 55 million tonnes of total traffic and more than 2.2 million TEUs making it the leading Spanish port, the sixth container port in Europe and one of the top 25 in the world and its new capacity across the Bay in Campamento is set to enable the Port to substantially increase that put-through.

The Maersk Sea-Land current container-handling capacity is based on a quay which has a surface area of 68.6 hectares, fitted out with 12 Portainer cranes, 7 of which are Super Post Panamax standard. The quay has a 1,456 metre berthline with draughts 14 metres to 16 metres and another 343 metre berthline for draughts of 15 metres. Established in 1928 under the name of Maersk Line, Maersk Sea-Land is today one of the largest liner shipping companies in the world with more than 300 container vessels and 950,000 containers, operated through a network of its own offices and container terminals in more than 100 countries. The AP Møller- Maersk company now has a sizeable presence in the Mediterranean because it also has the concession to operate the facility at the new $1.4bn Tangiers super-port, Tánger - Méditerranée port, with a 1.3m TEU annual capacity terminal, 40 hectares in area, with an 800-metre dock.

Maersk now has Tangiers, Algeciras, and also the newly opened Suez Canal Container Terminal with the Suez terminal being operated as a common-user facility, to handle both local cargo and regional transhipments.

A second container terminal is planned for TangiersMed, based on the original plan set out in 2002 when the Moroccan Government created a 550-square kilometre Special Development Zone 35 kilometres to the east of Tangiers and north of Tetuan, to promote access to foreign markets for companies in Morocco and to develop their future logistics processes, as well as to contribute to the boosting of the Moroccan economy and the development of tourism in the region. Morocco’s main ports are Casablanca, Tangiers, Mohammedia, Jorf Al Asfar, Agadir and Nador but Tangiers-Med port is set to be Morocco’s main sea gateway in the future.

Designed as an exchange platform and hub port, especially for container transfer work, it is a major project backed by the nearby market of over 600 million inhabitants, and as such, for the year 2020, traffic of 3 million TEUs is anticipated, as well as private investment worth 1,000 million Euros, and the creation of 145,000 jobs.

Its two stated objectives are to absorb the container transfers of the main shipping lines with east-west and north-south traffic; and the other, to carry out the transfers with neighbouring regions as a destination, such as the eastern Mediterranean, and northern and western Africa.

In the meantime, discussions continue as to how to convert the Campo de Gibraltar into a Free Trade Zone, but there are many obstacles to overcome before it can become reality.

Tangiers-Med is already about to implement its free trade area whichwill consist of a Logistics Free Trade Area of 138 hectares and a customs area, an Industrial Free Trade Area as an extension of the Tangiers free trade area situated 20 kilometres from the new port with an area of 600 hectares and a Commercial Free Trade Area located 18 kilometres from the new port and near the town of Fnideq with an area of 200 hectares. Business to business activities linked to the logistics free trade area will take place there, and will enable duty free shopping centres to be established.

The development of the Western Mediterranean area, including discussions about a “fixed-link”, a bridge or a tunnel to connect Europe and Africa, was given impetus back in 1995 when on 28th November the members of the European Union and their 12 Mediterranean partners declared in Barcelona their intention to “establish amongst themselves a long-lasting, stable partnership in order to consolidate peace and stability in the Mediterranean founded on economic growth, dialogue and mutual understanding and respect”.

The third Pan-European Conference on Transport in Helsinki provided the occasion to put forward a programme of work centred around the concept of priority transport corridors, taking up the work already done within the Euro- Mediterranean framework and in particular the work done by the Transport Group of the Western Mediterranean (GTMO).

At the level of the Western Mediterranean, discussions are advanced and the establishment of cooperation has made it possible to give more detailed shape to these corridors with the decision, amongst other issues, to uphold as priority corridors: the Maghreb Union Motorway; the trans- Maghreb train; the Latin arc; the network of port and airport multimodal platforms and their connections with land infrastructure; the networks required for the harmonization and effectiveness of air control; the fixed link across the Strait of Gibraltar. A certain number of priority issues apart from infrastructure were also established in order to facilitate exchanges — these issues included a new air control system up to European standards and certain administrative and customs procedures.

The study made it possible to evaluate growth in traffic flows in the Western Mediterranean and also highlighted the importance for the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership of establishing rapid, reliable transport links for high added value goods and certain food products. It also called attention to the fact that international flows along the main land routes remain modest in comparison with internal movement.

The principal infrastructure needs were defined on the basis of these projections and the projects were then classified into several groups: one of the projects in this first group relevant to the Gibraltar area was the extension of the port of Tangiers or construction of a new Tangiers port; one other was the modernization of and bringing up to European standards air navigation systems.

A project, the main objectives of which are to facilitate Euro-Mediterranean exchanges and to contribute to strengthening relations between the two shores of the Mediterranean, is the fixed link across the Strait of Gibraltar. This project is stated to need “a concerted approach that takes into account other projects… such as those… incorporating the fixed link in Spanish and Moroccan railway infrastructure programmes and the link with the port of Tangiers.”

It does not include detail on the question as to where the fixed link will enter and leave each side, but there is conjecture that the new Tangier port has already anticipated the answer.