The Strait of Gibraltar occupies a central position in the main maritime trade routes between East and West. For decades, the port of Algeciras, located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, was the first port enclave to take advantage of this geographical advantage to develop as a container transshipment hub. By the mid-1990s, its focus on transit traffic allowed it to concentrate nearly 70% of the total container volume managed by the five ports that shape this area: Algeciras, Valencia, Málaga, Sines, and Tangier Med. However, that balance of power has changed radically in the last twenty years.
According to data collected by Professor Theo Notteboom for the PortEconomics platform, last year the share of Algeciras had fallen to just over 20% of the total, with a traffic volume that has remained relatively stable over the last five years, after peaking in 2020. In 2025, the port of Cádiz closed with 4.74 million TEUs, an increase of just 0.5% compared to the previous year, according to provisional data from Puertos del Estado.
Valencia, originally a gateway port focused on import and export cargo, has progressively expanded its presence in the transshipment market. The port of Valencia closed 2025 with 5.66 million TEUs, a growth of 3.4%, although notably lower than the 14.2% of the previous year. The deceleration reflects the normalization of traffic after an exceptional 2024.
Sines, in Portugal, represents a more recent entry in the regional transshipment arena. Its share rose from 0% in 2005 to 11.7% in 2017, but gradually decreased to 7.2% in 2025, according to the data from the chart prepared by Notteboom.
The actor that has completely transformed the port map of the region is Tangier Med. The Moroccan port, which opened its first terminals in 2007, has experienced sustained growth as new facilities came into operation. By 2020, its container traffic already exceeded that of Valencia and Algeciras. Last year, Tangier Med reached 11,106,164 TEUs, representing an increase of 8.4% compared to 2024, when it had already surpassed 10.2 million TEUs. This figure nearly doubles Valencia's record and exceeds Algeciras' port by more than 6 million TEUs. Today, Tangier Med concentrates more than 47% of the total container traffic managed by the five ports around the Strait of Gibraltar.
The growth of the Moroccan port has been supported by the expansion of the TC4 terminal, operated by APM Terminals, the terminal subsidiary of the Danish group Maersk, which came into service at the end of 2024 and increased the total capacity of that facility to 5.2 million TEUs annually. This terminal is a key part of the Gemini cooperation between Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, which uses APM Terminals' two operational centers in Morocco as hubs for its East-West routes.
The rise of a non-community transshipment hub near the European port system has raised concerns among EU institutions. In its January 2026 newsletter, FEPORT (European Federation of Private Port Operators) highlighted the essential role of transshipment ports for the European economy and warned about the potential diversion of traffic to non-community enclaves. The same concern has been expressed by ESPO (European Sea Ports Organization), which will hold an event in Brussels on February 20 focused on the findings of the EU ETS Observatory developed by Puertos del Estado.
At the center of this debate is the potential impact of the inclusion of maritime transport in the European Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) on community ports, especially regarding shipping companies' route decisions, hub selection, and the risk of evasive calls at neighboring non-community ports. The EU ETS, which came into force for the maritime sector in 2024 with a phased implementation schedule, requires shipping companies to cover 100% of their verified emissions from 2026 for intra-EU voyages, and 50% for trips between community and non-community ports.
The container transshipment market is highly competitive and characterized by shipping companies' mobility, which can redirect their calls based on operational costs. If any distortion in competitive conditions is detected, European port organizations warn, the consequences on the distribution of cargo flows between transshipment ports can be immediate and visible. The European Commission has included Tangier Med and East Port Said in the list of neighboring transshipment ports subject to scrutiny, but associations like FEPORT and ETA (European Tugboat Association) believe that monitoring should be extended to other enclaves that, although not reaching the threshold of 65% of transshipment traffic, also compete with European ports for that type of cargo.