Morocco's Tanger Med, Africa's largest container port, is expecting a potential increase in calls by ships as escalating tensions in the Middle East force shipping lines to re-route services around Africa, the port authority's managing director said.
Major container carriers including Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM said this month they are re-routing vessels around the Cape of Good Hope.
Re-routing would add an additional 10 to 14 days of transit time for vessels diverted via the Cape of Good Hope to reach Tanger Med, Idriss Aarabi, managing director of Tanger Med, told Reuters by email.
The port of Tanger Med, which is in northern Morocco on the Strait of Gibraltar, is focusing on, "capacity management and the prevention of congestion," Aarabi said.
"The full impact on cargo flows is not expected to be visible until mid-to-late April 2026," he said, noting that at this stage no cancellations have been reported at the port.
Ships have been avoiding the Suez Canal and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait since late 2023, when Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping began. US and Israeli strikes on Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz have reinforced the shift, prompting expectations that Africa's bunkering sector will benefit from prolonged instability.
Higher fuel costs have added further pressure on freight rates due to longer voyages via the Cape of Good Hope, Aarabi said.
Carriers have introduced war-risk, emergency conflict and deviation surcharges of between $1,500 and $3,300 per standard container, with fees rising to as much as $4,000 for specialised equipment, he said.
Tanger Med outperformed Mediterranean peers with 11.1 million containers handled in 2025, up 8.4 per cent from a year earlier, and has route connections to more than 180 ports worldwide.
(Reporting by Ahmed El Jechtimi; Editing by Susan Fenton)
