To show its ambition, the port - situated on the south side of the Gibraltar strait - welcomed on the historic occasion the largest container ship in the world, the Evelyn Maersk, which transported 11,000 containers, equivalent to 100,000 tonnes, unloaded by five giant cranes.
The realization of the Terminal 1 needed 2 billion euro of investments and the concession of 30 years for its management was granted to APM Terminals, a group owned 90% by the Maersk company, which is the third world portual operator and the first shipping company with a fleet of 250 ships and a capacity of more than 12 million tonnes.
The arrival in the port of the big ship was celebrated by a tug-boat of the French company Bourbon SA which sounded its sirens. The port, victim of its success even before moving ahead full steam, will be filled by 2015 and forces the responsible of the port to think now of its enlargement in order to welcome 8 million and a half containers per year.
''The annual temporary capacity of the Tangier-Med Traffic is 3 million and a half 20-foot containers, to be reached by 2015. For this reason, from now to 2012, Tangier-Med II will be constructed, which will add a capacity of 5 million containers'', said Said el-Hadi, president of the executive council of the special agency Tanger -Mediterranee' created to construct the port.