(MENAFN- Morocco World News) Rabat – Moroccan ports saw an 8.6% increase in activity in 2016, reports the National Ports Agency, with 121.1 million tons of goods transported compared to last years' 111.5 million tons.
A great year for Moroccan port activity; the report prepared by the National Ports Agency highlights a general strengthening of trade in this year. In 2016, vehicle traffic increased by 24.7%. Thus 508,815 units have passed through the various ports managed by the ANP, with 77% of this traffic recorded at the port of Tangier Med.
According to the National Agency of Ports, this increase is the result of the good orientation of the domestic traffic, especially with regard to import-export. This traffic, estimated at 90.3 million tons, has increased by 9.7% compared with 2015.
The ANP also noted in 2016 an exceptional increase in cabotage activity. Covering a volume of 4.6 million tons, cabotage activity was consolidated by 17.6%, mainly driven by the reconfiguration of flows between Moroccan ports with respect to the coasting of hydrocarbons. Its volume reached 2.9 million tons (+43.9%) the end of 2016, benefiting, according to the ANP, to Tanger Med's concurrent doubling in traffic to reach 891,500 tons.
Similarly, the increase in the volumes of clinker transferred to the port of Laayoune from the ports of Safi and Agadir is due to some extent to the improvement of cabotage activity. These volumes of clinker reached 250,000 tons, an increase of 11.4%. Trans-shipment activity was also on an upward trend, boosted by hydrocarbon traffic to increase by 5.6%On the other hand, the positive trend in overall port traffic was also fortified by the 5.6% improvement in transhipment activity, boosted in particular by hydrocarbon traffic. Container transshipment, however, stagnated at the same level last year (2.8 MEVP), a slight decrease of 0.2%.
In addition, passenger traffic was 4.9 million passengers, including 337,971 cruise passengers. This traffic increased by 7.7%. The distribution of this traffic by port places Tanger Med in front with 2.72 million passengers. The second place is granted to the port of Tangier City, with 1.46 million passengers, followed by the port of Nador (465,375 passengers), Casablanca (199,702 passengers) and Agadir (71,369 cruise passengers).
Taking advantage of the dynamics of the country's maritime trade during the past year, imports increased by 12.6%, with a volume of 56.4 million tonnes. Exports also registered a positive trend with a 3.5% increase and a volume of 29.3 million tonnes.
In value terms, exports of goods amounted to MAD 222.6 billion at the end of 2016, registering an increase of 2.1%. The value of imports grew at a steeper pace (+ 9.3%), reaching MAD 407 billion at the end of 2016.
The evolution of exports is due to the good performance of exports from Morocco's global businesses, including the automotive (+11.5%), aeronautics (+14.6%) and electronics (+6.7%) sectors, as well as the agri-food (+5.2%) and textile and leather (+6.7%) sectors. The increase in imports was mainly due to higher capital goods acquisitions (+27.5%), semi-finished products (+5%), consumer goods (+15.2% ) and food products (+25%).
The agency also points to the sharp rise in cereal traffic. The volume recorded at the ports managed by the ANP is estimated at 8,617,614 tons, an increase of 56.7%. More than 5 million tons of this volume have passed through the port of Casablanca. At the level of Jorf Lasfar, the ANP notes an increase of 25.1%, or 1.26 million tons of cereals. The port of Agadir posted an increase of 100%, with a volume of 972,019 tonnes. The ports of Safi and Nador saw their traffic climb 217% and 189% respectively. On the other hand, cereal traffic at Tanger Med declined by 2.5%.
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