ALGECIRAS AND TANGIER NOT COMPLEMENTARY

The timescale of the plan – divided into three phases – has been estimated at 6, 12 and 18 years and will be achieved with no detrimental effect to daily port operations. Piano’s plan envisages doubling the current operating surface from 200 to 400 hectares, thereby providing Genoa with the opportunity to address the challenges posed by future developments in the industry and to continue to build its role as a global trade gateway.

The ex-VP of the Algeciras Bay Port Authority, Patricio Gonzalez, confessed to a feeling of “tremendous sadness” upon hearing the news that Maersk had been awarded the concession to manage the new Moroccan port of TangierMediterranean. He noted that while everybody was talking about Tangier as being complimentary to that of Algeciras “nobody believes that”. The main worry is that the appointed concessionaire, Maersk, which is also the port of Algeciras’s main box handling stevedore, could be tempted to switch operations to the other side of the Straits of Gibraltar to take advantage of costs that can be up to six times lower than Spain’s.