Morocco has inaugurated the first container terminal at the Nador West Med port, on the Mediterranean coast in the north-east of the country. Crown Prince Moulay El Hassan launched operations on October 31, 2026, on instructions from King Mohammed VI, with the terminal’s first commercial container unloading.
The opening marks a major step for one of Morocco’s biggest port projects, built to add capacity on the busy shipping routes between the Suez Canal and the Strait of Gibraltar.
Nador West Med East Terminal: key facts
- Operator: Marsa Maroc and Terminal Investment Limited (TIL), a subsidiary of MSC, under a 25-year concession.
- Investment: about MAD 5 billion.
- Quay: 1,520 metres long and 18 metres deep, able to receive very large container ships.
- Storage yards: 70 hectares.
- Capacity: up to 3.5 million containers a year by 2030.
The operating company announced on September 10 that the East Terminal was operationally ready, after a test call used to validate its processes.
West Terminal and total port capacity
A second container terminal is planned alongside the first. It will be run by Marsa Maroc and CMA CGM, with an investment of about MAD 3 billion, a 900-metre quay and 38 hectares of yards. It is expected to start in April 2027 and add 1.8 million TEUs of capacity.
Together, the two terminals will give the port a container capacity of 5.3 million TEUs. The wider Nador West Med project represents about MAD 54 billion in public and private funds.
Jobs and economic impact
According to official figures, the port complex is expected to create 14,000 direct jobs and 20,000 indirect jobs in the short term. The port is located in the Bay of Betoya, at the Kert River estuary, about 30 km west of Nador, and covers around 1,500 hectares of land with a main protective dike of roughly 4,200 metres.
The opening also fits Morocco’s wider push to expand trade and industrial capacity. Recent figures show strong momentum in the sectors that depend on ports: see our reports on the Safran Morocco expansion in Temara and on new company registrations in 2026.
What happens next
With the East Terminal now running, attention turns to ramping up shipping lines and to the opening of the West Terminal in 2027. Full capacity of the East Terminal is targeted for 2030, the year Morocco co-hosts the FIFA World Cup.
Sources: Morocco World News; Hespress English; Wikipedia.
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