First box ship for Eurogate Tanger

New Moroccan container terminal Eurogate Tanger on Wednesday handled its first containership ahead of the start of regular liner services next month.

The first box ship at the facility was the 8,488-TEU CMA CGM Otello, which discharged five disassembled Kalmar rubber-tired gantry cranes (RTGs).

The first regular service to call at Eurogate Tanger will be CMA CGM's Far East/Northern Europe FAL 1 service, kicking off Oct. 8 with CMA CGM La Traviata, another 8,488-TEU ship.

Although the official opening ceremony of Eurogate Tanger will not be until spring next year, we will be fully operational by the end of this year. We are now starting to handle ocean carriers and will soon increase the number of services, said Domenico Bagal? president of the management board of Eurogate Tanger.

The terminal has 450 meters of quayside and five container gantry cranes. By the end of the year, the quay length will be extended to 810 meters and three more container gantry cranes will arrive in January 2009.

Eurogate Tanger is a joint development between German container terminal operator Eurogate and major European shipping lines Mediterranean Shipping Co., Zim and CMA CGM, together with its Moroccan subsidiary Comanav. 

Source: American Shipper